When it comes to ant larvae, it's actually not simple.

Certain ant larvae play a vital role in strengthening the cohesion of the entire ant colony in the complex societies in which they are born. Even these ant larvae have unique functions and social hierarchies, and without the presence of larvae, some ant colonies will not be able to survive properly.

Ant larvae resemble worms and give the impression that they can only passively receive care from adult ants, who do not even have tentacles and may not be able to interact with their surroundings.

In reality, however, all this is an illusion.

Some ant larvae can signal to adult ants that they are hungry by a unique way of rocking or rolling their bodies! Some ant larvae, such as bullet ants, can even stand upright. Despite having no legs, some ant larvae can actually move, and they can crawl towards insects or worms that have been captured by adults.

In addition to this, ant larvae hide unusual physical features. For example, leafcutter larvae have elongated heads that are perfect for feeding, and adult ants tear mites and present them to the larvae. Leafcutter larvae use their elongated heads to protrude into the mites' bodies and absorb internal nutrients.

Small-breasted larvae, on the other hand, have complementary functions, as their abdomen has a unique structure that acts as a food basket for them to store their prey.

Many larvae have body hair covering on their bodies, and these body hairs also have different functions. In some larvae, the hair is like Velcro, which allows the larvae to be easily carried by worker ants. Fierce ant larvae have hooks at the ends of their body hair, and adult ants can hang them on the walls of their nests as a way to organize and determine feeding times.

These body hairs not only act as hooks, they also help the larvae communicate by sensing vibrations.

In addition to hair, the larvae of some ants can also communicate through their vocal organs. The pupal shells of some leafcutter larvae harden and specialized organs help them make calls. Adult ants typically use chemical signals to communicate, and the hard skin of the pupae may prevent pheromone secretion, encouraging the larvae to use their voices to communicate. Interestingly, it is generally the higher social status larvae that make noise from friction, as usually the lower rank larvae are unable to make sounds.

Some larvae have physical characteristics that even favor the entire colony. Some larvae can spin silk around the pupae, and adult ants can use these silks to build nests, and most female larvae have this skill, suggesting that there is also a clear division of labor between larvae.

At the same time, when floods hit, certain ant colonies use the natural buoyancy of the larvae to help save the entire colony. In order to survive the floods, these ants would join their bodies to form floating rafts, and the larvae, which were more likely to float, often acted as the bottom of the raft, saving the entire colony, although the larvae would have a higher mortality rate.

Compared to the lesser-known physical characteristics, some of the larvae seem to behave more bizarrely.

In some populations, the larvae usually act as a "common stomach". This is due to the fact that adult ants have a thin waist, and they can usually only digest liquid food. Young ants, on the other hand, can eat insects instead of adult ants, and then produce a nutrient-rich liquid food that can be eaten by adult ants.

Larvae process their food in different ways. Some larvae use saliva to digest insects and then regurgitate the food to adult workers, who in turn feed the food to the queen. These foods are essential for queen ants to lay eggs.

Some larvae help adult ants handle food in slightly different ways, such as worker ants, which rely on ant larvae to soften their prey. Worker ants dismember fruit flies and then place small, hard body parts into the mouths of the larvae, which have troughs dedicated to storing food. The larvae secrete saliva into their food to digest and soften the prey organs. Sometimes, the larvae will also pierce the food with their jaws, injecting digestive enzymes into it to speed up the digestion process. Finally, the worker ants absorb the soft tissue, leaving some for the larvae to eat.

Sometimes, the larvae help the adult ants in a frightening way. Some ants will pierce the abdominal ducts of the larvae to suck blood to survive, just like vampires. These ants prey on large centipedes, but not always with success, for which biologists believe that their blood-sucking behavior is an adaptation to help supplement the adult body. These ants also squeeze the larvae's neck to extract edible saliva.

Some ant colonies have a similar behavior by squeezing the back end of the larva to force the larvae to secrete milky white droplets, which are rich in nutrients.

Dead larvae can also be eaten as food, as long as they do not die of a contagious disease. In more extreme cases, when food is scarce, larvae are often killed and eaten. It's like protein bread ready to use in an ant colony. If the queen is in danger of starvation, she eats the larvae or pupa.

Because of their important role in providing food, the larvae in some colonies actually control the reproductive capacity of the colony. Because the queen needs the protein provided by the larvae to lay eggs, the more larvae there are, the stronger their ability to lay eggs.

In addition, pharaoh larvae can actively choose what type of food to provide to the adults so that no nutrients are wasted. They will choose to give nutrients to the mature queen ant who is in the breeding stage, rather than the immature queen. Chemical signals can help them assess the reproductive status of the queen.

Larvae can also regulate reproduction in other ways. Some species of worker ants can usually produce offspring on their own, but often stop reproducing when they are at the queen's side and tending to the eggs. Worker ants lay eggs that look almost identical to those laid by the queen, and the larvae encourage the workers to delay egg laying: when the workers are surrounded by the eggs laid by the queen, they continue to lay eggs as usual. But when the larvae appear, the worker ants stop laying eggs.

The larvae are also the most mysterious cannibalistic behavior, and the larvae will sometimes eat other larvae. This is a rare and overt act of selfishness for a social species that is characterized by collaboration and self-sacrifice. This behavior usually occurs in large ant colonies, which are made up of unrelated ant colonies, sometimes with thousands of different families. Larvae are more likely to eat distant relatives than close relatives, and eliminating these intimately related larvae can help their families take over the colony. This is really a black and cruel palace fighting drama.

The study found that cannibalism rarely occurred in ant nests and among the larvae who were more closely related. This suggests that larvae are indeed able to distinguish between near and far relatives, assess their surroundings, and respond differently depending on different social contexts. Moreover, male larvae are more likely to have cannibalistic behavior compared to female larvae.

The larvae can even take part in the battle to protect the nest and eat the invading kind.

Many ants are "social parasites" who steal other ant nests to create new colonies. The young queen usually enters the enemy's nest to lay eggs, tricking the worker ants into raising its offspring. Over time, her offspring can take over the colony. The larvae, on the other hand, protect their homes through cannibalism.

Because the invading queen is usually not directly attacked and killed, the larvae of the defending side can fight it by killing her eggs. The larvae respond differently to different types of eggs, identifying the parasitic eggs and eating them.

In summary, in many ways, the existence and development of an ant colony depends on the larvae, which are essential for the entire colony.