Life in an Ant Colony

Workers in a single nest can all be the same size or they can very greatly in size. When all are of the same or a similar size they are said to be monomorphic. In some cases the variation in size can be so extreme that large workers are twice the size of small workers (figures right). If variation between small and large workers is continuous, the workers are said to be polymorphic. If there are only two distinct size classes of workers, they are called dimorphic. Many of the polymorphic and dimorphic species show allometry. That is, the heads and mandibles of the large, or major, workers are disproportionally large when compared to those of the small, or minor, workers.