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Multiple Convergent Origins of Workerlessness and Inbreeding in the Socially
Parasitic Ant Genus Myrmoxenus
#MMPMID26221735
Heinze J
; Buschinger A
; Poettinger T
; Suefuji M
PLoS One
2015[]; 10
(7
): e0131023
PMID26221735
show ga
The socially parasitic ant genus Myrmoxenus varies strongly in fundamental life
history traits, such as queen-worker ratio, the timing of sexual production, and
mating behavior. Myrmoxenus queens generally take over nests of Temnothorax ants,
kill the resident queen by throttling, and force the workers to take care of the
social parasite's brood. Young queens of M. ravouxi and other species produce
large numbers of workers, which during "slave-raids" pillage host pupae from
neighboring Temnothorax colonies to increase the workforce in their own nests.
Other species, such as M. corsicus, have lost caste polyphenism and rear only
male and female sexual offspring. Using sequences of the genes CO I/CO II and
wingless we reconstruct the phylogeny of Myrmoxenus and document that the worker
caste was lost convergently at least three times. Furthermore, mating in the nest
and inbreeding obviously also evolved in parallel from ancestors whose sexuals
presumably mated during nuptial flights. Myrmoxenus might thus provide a suitable
model to investigate caste differentiation and the plasticity of mating behavior
in Hymenoptera.
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