Alate

Alates are ants (or termites) that are capable of flying off and making new colonies, male alates die soon after mating (this does not apply to termites).

In driver ant colonies there are no female alates, instead the ant colonies have a similer system to a cell; one secondary female will rise to power and leave the colony splitting the population in half.

Many alates fall victim to: bats, birds, dragonflies, other ants, mantidflies, spiders, wasps, and nearly every other flying, crawling, squirming or walking carnivore or omnivore.