This story appears in the June 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine. It’s good to be the queen—the ant queen, that is—because mating does wonders for her immune system. When exposure ...

The black garden queen (Lasius niger) ant plays a crucial role in the survival and growth of her colony. As the sole reproducer, she is responsible for laying thousands of eggs throughout her life ...

That ant might be a queen mother, weighing about the same as a few grains of salt. But she, along with other queens and their worldwide empires, would match the weight of the seven billion people ...