The ant will be noticeably bigger than the surrounding ants, or other ants you have seen. Think about the type of ants you have as well. With leaf-cutter ants, the queen is particularly likely to be bigger than the worker ants. [2] X Research source However, with fire ants and carpenter ants, workers themselves come in many different sizes. [3] X Research source This may make it difficult to differentiate between the queen and worker ants based on size alone.
Some male ants do have wings, but they tend to be slightly less noticeable. The types of male ants that have wings will generally look more slender and wasp like than a queen, who will generally be larger.
As a queen’s thorax once supported wings, it will be much bulkier and more muscular than a worker ant’s body. A queen’s thorax makes up more than half its body size. This is much larger than the thorax of a regular ant.
