Sep 15, 2025 09:12 PM
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/13/scien...wo-species
EXCERPT: . . . Messor ibericus and Messor structor once belonged to the same species that split over 5 million years ago, according to the study authors. Even after splitting, the two species lived in the same geographical area in Europe. In some parts of the continent, such as eastern France, the species still live in proximity to one another.
At some point, possibly as early as several million years ago, Iberian harvester ant queens lost the ability to produce their own worker ants, which are female. Researchers have yet to uncover why this happened, but it led the queens to mate with nearby populations of Messor structor ants to create a workforce that was a hybrid of the two species.
“We suspect it stems from an evolutionary conflict between queens and larvae, where a so-called ‘selfish’ genetic element skews larval development toward becoming queens to ensure its transmission to the next generation (since queens reproduce, while workers are largely sterile),” Romiguier wrote in an email.
Iberian harvester ants were then dependent on Messor structor ants for their survival, forcing the queens to track down males of another species, which is known as sperm parasitism.
Rather than dealing with such a time-consuming nuisance, Iberian harvester ants turned to another strategy of reproduction: cloning the sperm of Messor structor ants, a phenomenon called sexual domestication, the study authors said. Scientists have yet to observe this practice in any other animal.
“Much like humanity domesticating livestock, they eventually gained control over the reproduction of these males they once exploited in the wild,” Romiguier said. “This domestication of males became possible through their ability to clone a male from another species using just its sperm.”
Over generations, it became possible for Iberian harvester ants to maintain a lineage of cloned male Messor structor ants within their nest, eliminating the need to live in the same geographic area as another species and resulting in millions of invasive hybrid worker ants building colonies across the Mediterranean... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: . . . Messor ibericus and Messor structor once belonged to the same species that split over 5 million years ago, according to the study authors. Even after splitting, the two species lived in the same geographical area in Europe. In some parts of the continent, such as eastern France, the species still live in proximity to one another.
At some point, possibly as early as several million years ago, Iberian harvester ant queens lost the ability to produce their own worker ants, which are female. Researchers have yet to uncover why this happened, but it led the queens to mate with nearby populations of Messor structor ants to create a workforce that was a hybrid of the two species.
“We suspect it stems from an evolutionary conflict between queens and larvae, where a so-called ‘selfish’ genetic element skews larval development toward becoming queens to ensure its transmission to the next generation (since queens reproduce, while workers are largely sterile),” Romiguier wrote in an email.
Iberian harvester ants were then dependent on Messor structor ants for their survival, forcing the queens to track down males of another species, which is known as sperm parasitism.
Rather than dealing with such a time-consuming nuisance, Iberian harvester ants turned to another strategy of reproduction: cloning the sperm of Messor structor ants, a phenomenon called sexual domestication, the study authors said. Scientists have yet to observe this practice in any other animal.
“Much like humanity domesticating livestock, they eventually gained control over the reproduction of these males they once exploited in the wild,” Romiguier said. “This domestication of males became possible through their ability to clone a male from another species using just its sperm.”
Over generations, it became possible for Iberian harvester ants to maintain a lineage of cloned male Messor structor ants within their nest, eliminating the need to live in the same geographic area as another species and resulting in millions of invasive hybrid worker ants building colonies across the Mediterranean... (MORE - details)