Ants are common insects. There are more than twelve thousand kinds in the world. They are born, and live and work in a colony with many other ants. An ant goes through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa/cocoon and adult. An ant egg is about the size of the punctuation mark, the period. An egg is kidney-shaped and soft, it has a sticky surface. It can clump together with other eggs. This allows a group of eggs to be carried away quickly if danger occurs. Some eggs don't survive because they are eaten by other ants. The ant egg cells divide for 7-14 days and a larva appears. The larva will shed its skin about 3 times. It eats constantly. It will get bigger each time it sheds. The larva sucks up the liquids from the food brought to it. Sometimes adult ants eat food and spit it up for the larva. The larva will also get hairier. It will have hook-like hairs. These hairs allow groups of them to be picked up and carried like the eggs. A larva doesn't have any feet. It can bend a little towards food. Some types can also move along. About 25 days later, a larva changes into a pupa. It may look like a small white maggot or worm. Some types of ants don't have a pupa state. They will make a cocoon at the larva stage and become an adult. A larva makes its cocoon against a solid object like a wall or the ground. A new adult ant is light in colour but will get darker as it gets older. The total process from egg to adult may take a few weeks or months. It depends on the type of ant and where it lives.