Ирина Козорог
Death of a Queen
On the 25th of September, 2014, in the middle of the day one small formicary with harvester ants bestowed its last honors to the Queen.
Death of the leader is the worst tragedy for the citizens of the ant country. Each ant went through this catastrophe differently. Those ants who couldn’t put up with the tragedy tried to revive the Queen.
This colony is doomed unless the new Queen appears
Photos cannot convey everything that was happening there. I made an additional short documentary. Take a look at it...
Ants repeatedly carried her body through the entire anthill, every now and then returning it to the places where the Queen preferred to lay eggs.
Other ants despairingly wreaked their pain on their fellows. Fierce strives took place at all levels in formicary.
Only a tiny bunch of ants kept caring about eggs, larvae, pupae and newborn babies.
Some ants carried away dead bodies and assisted injured fellows.
Empty stockrooms, abandoned nurseries and kindergartens, garbage and corpses everywhere were the consequences of the Queen’s death.
In course of three days the ants conducted at least ten funerals of the Queen. Every time she was buried, her body was immediately exhumed and carried through the formicary so that all the ants could bestow their honors.
Olympus OM-D Е-М1 и объектив M.Zuiko Digital ED 60 mm 1:2.8 Macro
Translated to English by Ekaterina Iudina