Ant hillA new worker spends the first few days of its
adult life caring for the queen and young. After that
it graduates to digging and other nest work, and then
to foraging and defense of the nest. These changes are
fairly abrupt and define what are called temporal castes.
In a few ants there are also physical castes - workers
come in a spectrum of sizes, called minor, media, and
major workers, the latter beginning foraging sooner. Often
the larger ants will have disproportionately larger heads,
and so stronger mandibles. In a few species the media
workers have disappeared, so there is a sharp divide and
clear physical difference between the minors and majors,
sometimes called soldiers.
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