Discover How an Ant Queen Gave Rise to Two Unique Species!

Researchers in Montpellier, France, have made a fascinating discovery about Iberian harvester ants. These ants, known scientifically as Messor ibericus, have a remarkable ability: their queens can lay eggs that turn into two distinct ant species.

The team was investigating why a certain ant species seemed to be missing. They noticed that Iberian harvester ants appeared to create hybrid worker ants by mating with another species, Messor structor. The twist? The closest Messor structor population is over 600 miles away, on the Italian island of Sicily.

“We suspected something unusual was going on,” said Jonathan Romiguier, a senior researcher involved in the study published in Nature on September 3. Their investigation led them to explore over 120 ant populations across Europe, analyzing hundreds of ant genomes and conducting lab experiments over five years.

To their surprise, they found that the queens can decide how to develop their eggs based on their needs. If they require future queens, the eggs develop one way; if they need worker ants, they develop another.

Iberian harvester ants and Messor structor diverged from a common ancestor more than five million years ago, yet they still coexist in parts of Europe. Interestingly, Iberian harvester queens lost the ability to produce their own worker ants millions of years ago. This led them to mate with Messor structor ants for a workforce, a phenomenon scientists refer to as “sperm parasitism.”

Instead of the long process of finding males from the other species, these queens have adapted to clone the sperm of Messor structor males. This unique method, called sexual domestication, has never been observed in other animals. It allows Iberian harvester ants to maintain a lineage of cloned males in their nests.

The research suggests a new type of reproduction called xenoparous, where one species produces offspring from the genetic material of another species. This means that Iberian harvester ants can create a hybrid workforce through clones. As Romiguier explains, this evolution allows these ants to survive and thrive without relying on the presence of Messor structor.

Sequencing the genomes confirmed that the pure Iberian harvester ants are the queens and males necessary for producing future queens, while the hybrid workers arise from eggs fertilized with Messor structor sperm. These cloned males inherit traits from both species, leading to distinct differences such as hair presence.

The team has been monitoring these ants in artificial nests for two years and has observed the birth of both species from a single queen. Their next steps will delve deeper into understanding this cross-species cloning mechanism, a topic that could offer insights into cloning in other species.

Dr. Jacobus J. Boomsma, a professor of ecology at Denmark’s University of Copenhagen, noted that while hybrid offspring exist in various ant species, the combination of this cloning and hybridization is groundbreaking. He predicts that this unique evolutionary path may pose risks for the Iberian harvester ants in the long run.

This discovery not only highlights the extraordinary adaptability of ants but also raises intriguing questions about evolution and reproductive strategies in the animal kingdom. As researcher Jessica Purcell pointed out, understanding the intricate reproductive processes could lead to exciting findings in the future.

For more on this groundbreaking research, check out the study published in Nature.

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