large number of males trying to mate with her, and will drop to the ground, with the ants dispersing later on. M. pulchra queens are ergatoid and cannot fly; the males meet the queen out in an open area away from the nest and mate, and these queens do not return to their nest after mating. Both independent and dependent colony foundation can occur after mating. Isolation by distance (IBD) patterns have been recorded with M. pilosula queens, where nests that tend to be closer together were more genetically related to each other in comparison to other nests further away. Independent colony foundation is closely associated with queens which engage in nuptial flight in areas far from their home colony, showing that dependent colony foundation mostly occurs if they mate near their nest. In some cases, queens could seek adoption into alien colonies if there are no suitable areas to find a nest or independent colony foundation cannot be carried out. Other queens could try to return to their home nest after nuptial flight, but they may end up in another nest near the nest they originally came from. In multiple-queen societies, the egg-laying queens are generally unrelated to one another, but one study showed that it is possible for multiple queens in the same colony to be genetically related to each other. Depending on the species, the number of individuals present in a colony can range from 50 to over 2,200 individuals. A colony with less than 100 workers is not considered a mature colony. M. dispar colonies have around 15 to 329 ants, M. nigrocincta have over 1,000, M. pyriformis have from 200 to over 1,400 and M. gulosa have nearly 1,600. A colony can last for a number of years. Foraging behaviour among smaller workers which never usually leave the nest can be a sign of a colony's impending demise. Workers are known to produce their own eggs, but these eggs are unfertilised and hatch into male ants. There is a chance of workers attacking a particular individual who has successfully produced male offspring due to a change in a workers cuticular hydrocarbon; cuticular hydrocarbons are believed to play a vital role in the regulation of reproduction. However, this is not always the case. Myrmecia is one of several ant genera which possess gamergate workers, where a female worker is able to reproduce with mature males when