![Bridget Mullen, Birthday Series #35, 2021](https://antfactarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ant-fact-archive-14-Bridget-Mullen-Birthday-Series-35-2021-373x500.jpg)
Bridget Mullen
- Birthday Series #35
- 2021
- flashe on linen
- 30×22cm
- 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