a rift

moreanimalia:

cool-critters:

cool-critters:

As far as I could find any informations it seems to be like this: male ants (which are only born to reproduce and than be eaten by the ladies) do have two testicels and two deferent ducts in their abdomen, but they dont have a penis. It´s more like they let the sperm out through the abdomen as a drop and the female ant, which is almost always the queen, takes in the drop through her abdomen.

Old but gold!

Little correction:

The male ants dont get eaten after mating. However there are several reasons why the male ants die after the mating ceremony.
First of all, male ants are born from unfertilized eggs, and are homozygous. There is thus, a small genetic disadvantage that male ants have. The lethal and sub-vital alleles (which are recessive) have higher chance of being expressed in them. This means they are born with a higher mortality rate. Some also die of hunger because their colony doesnt take care of them after they fulfilled their task.

However, there are several ant species that act differently (army ants for example).
Thats what I found out after some research. If somebody would like to add something or found a mistake, just tell me. :)


A really great and more detailed explanation about ant penises you can find in the comment from Sacculetta! Who knew ant sex can even be dramatic?

Ant sex is weird