Bridget Mullen
- Birthday Series #35
- 2021
- flashe on linen
- 30×22 cm
- photo by Marten Elder
- courtesy of the artist
Male ants are often outlived by their sperm, dying just days after mating.38 The queen stores their ejaculate in a pouch-like organ and uses it to fertilize eggs for a decade or more.39,40
- According to research conducted on Crernatogaster opuntiae.
- The bean-shaped spermatheca features a precise valving system, releasing just a few sperm cells per egg.
- Wheeler & Krutzsch, 1994