> maybe the ant colony itself is more of an independent organism than any individual ant Yes, of course. The ant queen mates only once in her life, and the col

> maybe the ant colony itself is more of an independent organism than any individual ant Yes, of course. The ant queen mates only once in her life, and the colony she starts right after is made from the genetic material collected during this one foundational act. Genetically speaking, all the ants in the colony are one organism. (Lots of different and weird ways to express the genetics phenotypically, though.)