Some ants can "clone" themselves, but... > Members of the colony’s working caste, which nurse the brood, hunt for food, and defend the nest, die within 7 month

Some ants can "clone" themselves, but... > Members of the colony’s working caste, which nurse the brood, hunt for food, and defend the nest, die within 7 months, even when well-fed and protected in the lab. But ants in the reproductive caste, whose sole job is to lay eggs, can live 10 to 16 months. > ... scientists are starting to link aging patterns in social insects to the underlying molecules. One oddity they’re probing is the link between reproduction and longevity. So, we've just started to learn something, but we didn't reach any meaningful conclusion yet. But the article is really interesting. By the way, I had no idea that genetically-modified bees have been created as early as 2014. Makes sense though.