this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 6 points 18 hours ago

Lol so many people in this thread have been brainwashed.

Do you y'all seriously believe in Ants??!??

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago

Kropotkin in a nutshell

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] KenOh@feddit.online 5 points 1 day ago

We live in a society

for ants

[–] 5ha99y@lemmus.org 6 points 1 day ago

It is in their nature to work like this. They are specialised drones serving that exact purpose. The queen is btw no different. It is the DNA housing drone that produces all kind of drones. Their brains are pheromonally connected. Most possibly they share one brain (and consciousness) and are equipped for some brain parts "getting lost". It is anthropomorphizing to assume that they act like a human kingdom, where the queen (or king) is the upmost of all things to achieve in one or the other way. Ants are also all female. Only drones for mating are male.

[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Fun fact: most known ant species' workers are 0.01% genetically different than each other (ie. queen[s]:mate[s] ratio), and therefore are closer to clones than individual consciousnesses, strictly speaking. ☝🏼🤓

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 58 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

closer to clones than individual consciousnesses

You know that genetic clones are still individuals with independent brains, right?
Like twins don't have to take on the same profession or have the same personality. They're about as mentally different as any other random person.

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[–] morto@piefed.social 22 points 1 day ago (4 children)

You're mixing being a clone with being the same individual and sharing a mind, which are completely different things.

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[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is wrong. They get the same DNA father side because male ants are haploid (meaning they have one chromosome of each instead of a pair like diploids) but they get different genes from their mother so they are more closely related than human siblings but no where near your made up number. They are still 25% different

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (5 children)

None of y'all used citations so everyone is wrong!

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[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The males are born from the same queen they're spawned to mate with, Doolittle. FFS.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Fertilized eggs are female, unfertilized eggs male. That's why they are haploid. They are not going to mate their mother. Go read a book.

[–] StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today 1 points 8 hours ago

That depends on their species. Isn't it black crazy ants that can have males genetically unrelated to the queen?

[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

ALL OF THE GENETIC MATERIAL COMES FROM THE MOTHER, INCLUDING THE MALES THAT FERTILIZE HER EGGS. Fucking child. 😐

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 2 points 13 hours ago

Fucking child. 😐

Oh, you insulted me, now I'm convinced.

You might want to edit the wikipedia page because they are spreading lies. Closed to the truth is this:

Males will mount females in the air, but the actual mating process usually takes place on the ground. Females of some species mate with just one male but in others they may mate with as many as ten or more different males, storing the sperm in their spermathecae. The genus Cardiocondyla have species with both winged and wingless males, where the latter will only mate with females living in the same nest. Some species in the genus have lost winged males completely, and only produce wingless males. In C. elegans, workers may transport newly emerged queens to other conspecific nests where the wingless males from unrelated colonies can mate with them, a behavioural adaptation that may reduce the chances of inbreeding.

So there are some species within one genus where most males will mate within their nest (which doesn't necessarily mean their own mother because not all ants are fully social, I don't know about this genus) and even they have mechanisms to avoid the incest you described.

I'm very sorry for trying to educate you. I'm very sorry if I threw you from peak mount stupid. You do not have to do the bare minimum and read wikipedia articles if you already have enough superficial knowledge to feel superior to people who know stuff. It's enough to insult them to prove them wrong. I apologize for any inconvenience.

[–] solidheron@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The thing that makes him a clown is thinking the queen is in charge.

[–] chortle_tortle@mander.xyz 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

But like who is in charge?

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

There's not really such a thing as 'in charge' for ants. The colony is a single multi-body organism.

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
  1. her.

  2. They're more or less clones, the queen is "in charge" because she's a linchpin to the colony keeping going genetically.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where is the idea that worker ants are clones coming from? They share about 75% of their genes. That's a lot but far from more or less clones

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Another comment mentioned it, but the DNA is 99.9-100% in common. Ants have haplodiploidy, so the females and males aren't just male/female versions of the same DNA.

Also, if a queen dies, her own worker larva are raised into new queens. So the meme is just silly overall.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 19 hours ago

Another comment mentioned it, but the DNA is 99.9-100% in common

And I answered that comment as well. Haplodiploidy leads to the 75% figure rather than 50% most siblings have.

Also, if a queen dies, her own worker larva are raised into new queens.

They get special food (gele royal). Ants have their role from birth, there is no changing caste. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the queen dying. Pretty sure it's more about the season of the year.

The meme says "the queen will notice me" which has nothing to do with who becomes the next queen.

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

I love how the first clown makeup iteration was built in by nature of this being a false color EM

[–] jaykrown@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Holy shit why did I do this I'm laughing so hard right now

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

solo leveling arguably did ant-taur? better

[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I ant serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Like the dogstar? Man I wish my parents had named me something cool....

But the proteins compel me.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

You could also make meme about queen working hard in hope for retirement :)

[–] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago
[–] viertesauge@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago

what happened to 40(?) percent of workers sitting idle to act as backups?

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