[cess11]

It's rather common in rodents that they eat their offspring, as many parents that kept hamsters for their kids know.

In sheep it's somewhat common for first-time mothers to not want their offspring and refuse them the early ('raw'?) milk, which is pretty much a death sentence. A slow, painful death unless culled by a human.

The term mother isn't very clear in itself. Who is the mother in an anthill?

[gus_massa]

> Who is the mother in an anthill?

Except the queen, all the other ants are the daugthers of the queen.

IIRC thermites have many "queens" and "kings". I'm not sure about social wasps.

[cess11]

Right, so the queen lays the eggs, and there her care stops. Is she the mother since she made the eggs, or would the drones that care for them be the mothers?

[gus_massa]

The drones are the male ants. They just go away to find a new queen and die, while the new queen makes a new colony.

The new born ants are feed and cared by their sisters.

[cess11]

Yeah, sorry, got the drones mixed up.