2. A social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank, profession, or wealth.
3. A social system or the principle of grading society based on castes.
4. The social position or status conferred by a system based on castes.
5. A specialized level in a colony of social insects; such as, ants, in which the members, including workers or soldiers, carry out a specific function.
6. Etymology: "a race of men", from Latin casto, "chaste" from castus, "pure, cut off, separated"; past participle of carere, "to be cut off from".
The application to Hindu social groups picked up in India in the 17th century from Portuguese casta, "breed, race, caste"; from an earlier casta raca "unmixed race", from the same Latin word.
After selecting a nest site, a queen will begin laying eggs and caring for her brood. The first workers that develop assume brood care, leaving the queen to simply lay eggs.
Ant colonies can have single or multiple queens. The number of queens in multiple queen colonies varies by species, ranging from a few queens to nearly half the population in a colony.
Depending on the ant species, queens may live from months to years.
2. Males, that serve one purpose which is to mate or breed with the queen.Males typically die soon after mating or are forced to leave the colony and are normally alive solely during the colony's reproductive stage or period.
3. Workers, which are sterile, wingless females that form the main members of the colony.They perform the tasks necessary for the survival and growth of the colony; such as, foraging for or finding food, caring for the brood (eggs, larvae, plus the queen), and excavating or enlarging the nest.