When observing a colony of ants scurrying across a disturbed nest, their jaws often clutch small, pale objects that they carry with speed and purpose. Many people wonder what these white things are, often assuming they must be the colony’s eggs. This frantic movement is a display of organized social behavior, and the objects being transported represent the future of the entire colony. To understand the significance of this rescue mission, it is necessary to identify these white parcels.
The True Identity: Ant Brood
The white objects carried by worker ants are collectively known as the brood, which encompasses all the immature life stages of the ant colony. While the common assumption is that these are eggs, the eggs themselves are generally too small to be easily visible to the human eye. Ant eggs are typically tiny, oval, transparent, and about 0.5 millimeters in diameter. The majority of the pale, rice-shaped objects you see workers transporting are actually the larger, more developed stages: the larvae and the pupae. Since these soft-bodied immature stages are entirely dependent on the adult colony, their rapid relocation during a disturbance is an instinctual act of defense.
The Four Stages of Ant Development
Ants undergo a process called complete metamorphosis, meaning their life cycle is divided into four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The initial stage is the egg, which hatches into the grub-like larva after a period of about seven to fourteen days, depending on the species. The larva is a pale, yellowish-white, legless creature that is essentially a mobile stomach, focused solely on massive feeding and growth.
During this larval stage, the worker ants feed the young constantly, and the larva sheds its skin multiple times as it rapidly increases in size. Some ant larvae possess small, hooked hairs, which allows the nurse workers to carry them more easily by grouping several together. Once the larva has grown sufficiently, it enters the pupal stage, undergoing a transformative rest period.
The pupa is the most frequently seen large white object being carried. It appears as a small, pale, adult-shaped form with its antennae and legs folded against its body. In many species, the pupa is protected within a silken, white or brownish cocoon spun by the mature larva. Other species have “naked” pupae not covered by a cocoon. After this period of transformation, which can last nine to thirty days, the new adult ant emerges, initially pale and soft before its exoskeleton darkens and hardens.
Why Ants Move Their Brood
Moving the brood is an ongoing behavior, not limited to emergencies, and is necessary for the young’s survival and development. Nurse workers actively move larvae and pupae along temperature gradients within the nest to ensure optimal conditions, as ambient temperature directly affects the brood’s maturation rate. For example, workers transport the brood to warmer chambers in the morning to accelerate growth, or move them deeper when temperatures become too high. Humidity control is equally important, as soft-bodied eggs and larvae require specific moisture levels to prevent desiccation. When the nest is disturbed, workers execute an immediate defense strategy, quickly retrieving the vulnerable brood and moving them to the deepest, safest chambers for protection.