“`html
The very same Iberian harvester ant (Messor ibericus) queen gave rise to the coated male Messor ibericus (positioned at the left) and the smooth male Messor structor (on the right-hand side), despite the fact they originate from species only remotely related.(Image credit: Jonathan Romiguier, Yannick Juvé and Laurent Soldati)ShareShare by:
- Copy link
- X
Share this article 4Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletter
Queen ants inhabiting southern Europe bring forth male duplicates hailing from a completely different species — disrupting conventional reproductive biology and implying that we require a revised comprehension of species limitations.
The worker ants within Iberian harvester ant (Messor ibericus) communities exist as hybrids, where the queens have to mate with males descending from a remotely associated species, Messor structor, so as to ensure the colony’s proper operation. However, investigators have deduced that a number of Iberian harvester ant populations exhibit an absence of any M. structor colonies in their immediate environment.
You may like
-
‘Nothing but a nightmare’: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mom by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself
-
Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover
-
Newly discovered toads skip the tadpole stage and give birth to live ‘toadlets’
“We were obligated to recognize the truth and attempt to find if there was a peculiar element present in the Messor ibericus colonies,” Romiguier clarified.
To address the riddle, Romiguier alongside his research team found that Iberian harvester ant queens also deposited eggs which held male M. structor ants, those males ultimately becoming the progenitors of the worker ants. This revelation, disseminated on Sept. 3 in the journal Nature, denotes the first instance of an animal being recorded to produce offspring from a different species as a consistent component of their regular life cycle.
“In the initial phases, it was almost a humorous notion amongst the team,” Romiguier expressed. “Yet, as the findings grew, it matured into a credible theory as opposed to merely jest.”
Ants present themselves as eusocial insects, characterized by their colonies forming collaborative super-organisms composed mostly of sterile females, or worker ants, and a limited quantity of reproductive females, recognized as queens. Males exist exclusively to inseminate queens throughout their mating journey and usually cease to exist thereafter.
Queens only engage in copulation once through the duration of their life, retaining semen derived from this encounter inside a dedicated organ. She then uses this conserved sperm to lay fresh eggs which produce one of three categories of offspring: queens, worker ants, or males.
On the contrary, Iberian harvester ants pairing with males originating from their very own species can solely bear new queens. This is believed to happen as a consequence of selfish queen genes, by which the DNA obtained from male M. ibericus assures its endurance spanning generations via influencing larvae so they produce fertile queens as opposed to sterile workers — referred to as “royal cheaters.”
You may like
-
‘Nothing but a nightmare’: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mom by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself
-
Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover
-
Newly discovered toads skip the tadpole stage and give birth to live ‘toadlets’
These two ants showcase equivalent mitochondrial DNA but differing nuclear DNA.
In order to circumvent this, queens are compelled to employ sperm procured from male M. structor ants in the process of generating their workers.
This fact explains why the proliferation of detached M. ibericus populations posed such a dilemma.
To find clarifications, the researchers initially sampled 132 male ants coming from 26 Iberian harvester ant colonies to determine if M. structor males were present. They observed that 58 possessed a covering of hair and 74 lacked hair. A more granular inspection targeting the nuclear genomes within a subsection representing these ants pointed out that all hairy ants belonged to M. ibericus, and all non-hairy ants pertained to M. structor.
Yet, this failed to be proof affirming the queens were laying male eggs across a pair of distinct species — there remained the possibility of specific concealed M. structor queens producing the unusual male. Thus, the team sequenced the mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down maternally, for 24 of the M. structor males and came to find that the DNA came from the identical mother as the M. ibericus male nestmates.
“This particular piece of data made me come to the understanding that ‘perhaps we have stumbled onto something truly, spectacularly profound,'” Romiguier noted.
Subsequently, the research team isolated 16 queens hailing from laboratory communities and scrutinized the genetic order of their freshly laid eggs. Their analysis revealed that 9% of all eggs contained M. structor ants. By means of constant observation, they personally watched an individual queen bringing forth males of both species through the method of observing its broods each week over an 18-month duration.
Viewed collectively, these findings determine that Iberian harvester ant queens are producing clones consisting of M. structor males while averting any transmission of their distinctive nuclear DNA. Researchers are presently tasked with discovering the accurate process fundamental to this cloning action, Romiguier indicated, together with determining at what stage the maternal DNA experiences extraction.
RELATED STORIES
—These ant queens live 500% longer than workers. Now we know why.
—These worker ants drag their queens to far-off bachelor pads to mate
—’Supergene’ mutation turned ants into parasitic wannabe queens
Denis Fournier, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist attached to the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, but not engaged in the research, stated that it appeared “virtually like science fiction” upon initially learning of this revelation. “It’s astounding! Almost all of us learn that species borders are fixed, but this is a system in which ants regularly disregard them as a component of normal existence,” he related to Live Science within an email.
The research unit have assigned this novel reproductive system as “xenoparity,” signifying the delivery of a different species. Romiguier noted that the research team can’t specifically ascertain when this system initially surfaced within Iberian harvester ants, but he posits it arose somewhere between the moment that M. ibericus and M. structor diverged on separate evolutionary trails 5 million years back, and some thousand years prior.
“This finding acts as a helpful reminder to stay open-minded to the unusual,” Fournier suggested, noting that the discovery unlocks new inquiries about cooperation, discord, and reliance within nature. “Now that we comprehend the viability of such a system, it’s fascinating to ponder how historic, confounding data may instantly become rational given this groundbreaking revelation,” he contributed.
TOPICSreproductive system
Sophie BerdugoSocial Links NavigationStaff writer
Sophie serves as a U.K.-centered staff scribe for Live Science. She addresses an extensive scope of topics, having formerly reported on studies traversing from bonobo communication to the initial incidence of water extant in our universe. Her work also has surfaced in media sources which include New Scientist, The Observer and BBC Wildlife, coupled with her being shortlisted for the Association of British Science Writers’ 2025 “Newcomer of the Year” accolade regarding her freelance contributions to New Scientist. Ahead of evolving into a science journalist, she concluded her doctoral degree concentrated in evolutionary anthropology from the University of Oxford, where she gave four years to inspecting why specific chimpanzees display more tool proficiency than others.
Show More Comments
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
LogoutRead more
‘Nothing but a nightmare’: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mom by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself
Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover
Newly discovered toads skip the tadpole stage and give birth to live ‘toadlets’
‘An extreme end of human genetic variation’: Ancient humans were isolated in southern Africa for nearly 100,000 years, and their genetics are stunningly different
‘A forest with bonobos has never been so quiet’: Most extreme case of violence in ‘hippie’ species recorded, with females ganging up on male in unprecedented attack