Study confirms decades-long assumption about rare ant species

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7777980

A new study has now provided the first proof of an ant species that lacks both workers and males and consists exclusively of queens.

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  • tristynalxander@mander.xyzEnglish
    4·
    7 hours ago

    Vibes say these are more ant-parasites than parasite-ants, but they’re pretty interesting regardless. I was hoping to read about a clonal super-organism, but it seems like these supplant existing ant-queens, so I presume they are less collectivist than I was hoping. Still pretty cool.

    • piranhaconda@mander.xyzEnglish
      1·
      13 minutes ago

      “Now, the latest study shows that on top of killing the host queen, T kinomurai also reproduces asexually by producing clones of itself, and tricks the surviving host workers into rearing the offspring.”

      So do the clones then convince the workers to kill the original clone? Repeat until the colony falls apart because workers aren’t being produced?

  • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
    202·
    17 hours ago

    Conservatives seen sweating, drafting bills to ban them

  • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
    51·
    18 hours ago

    There’s gotta be a point at which sexual reproduction comes into play, otherwise it’s an evolutionary dead end

    • reallykindasorta@slrpnk.netEnglish
      151·
      18 hours ago

      Cloning!

      Note: Typically ‘workers’ are non sexually reproducing females for ants

      They then analysed the queen ants under a microscope and found that their mating structures were not used, essentially indicating that the offspring were all clones.

      After observing multiple colonies and multiple populations of the species, researchers confirmed that the species completely lacked workers and males.

      “Our data therefore suggest that the life history of T. kinomurai is characterised by the unique combination of workerless parasitism and parthenogenesis, i.e., the ability to produce female offspring from unfertilised eggs,” scientists wrote in the study published in the journal Current Biology.

      • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
        1·
        10 hours ago

        Yeah I read it, I’m saying that if an animal is only reproducing via cloning forever, it’s an evolutionary dead end, because they will have completely lost the ability to adapt to environmental changes

        • gid@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          7·
          6 hours ago

          Not necessarily: mutations will still happen. But there will not be any genetic crossing over that will contribute to greater variance.