Turtle Ant Queens Get Laid Once and Store Sperm for 25 Years

By Dodai Stewart | February 13, 2014 | 9:40pm

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If you watch one video about ant sex today, be sure it’s this one, with the sentence: “the queen… lays an army of all-female workers.”

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Brain Scoop’s Emily Graslie visited with Dr. Corrie Moreau, curator of insects at the Field Museum in Chicago. Dr. Moreau loves ants. Like, really loves ants. And as it turns out, most ants are female. Speaking specifically about turtle ants, Dr. Moreau explains how ants reproduce when there are no males in the colony. The key? Having a spermatheca. More Brain Scoop videos here.