Tragedy

With the Lasius Niger nuptial flight taking place, these unfortunate ants flew too close to a BBQ and as such perished. You can see the difference in size between the female (larger) and the male (smaller). As these ants mate while flying, you can see why she has to be bigger than him (other than the fact she needs fat stores for digging a nest and founding a colony). She effectively flies and carries him while they mate. Quite sad really but I suppose many other ants will have died which is why there are so many male and female ants released to mate at one time.