Queen ant makes males of another species for daughters to mate with

 

Male ants of different species laid by the same mother: Messor ibericus (left) and Messor structor (right) Image courtesy of Jonathan Romiguier

Joel Kontinen

Can ants  with different species mix together?  According to Genesis, they are the same species, as species is a human invention.

Bizarrely, Iberian harvester ant queens lay eggs that turn into male builder harvester ants, and some of her offspring are hybrids of the two species.

Some of the eggs laid by Iberian harvester ant queens contain males of another species, the builder harvester ant – and these males father all of the workers in the colony.

“This statement sounds really, really crazy, like impossible,” says Jonathan Romiguier at the University of Montpellier in France. And yet, he discovered, it is true.

Romiguier became intrigued by Iberian harvester ants (Messor ibericus) when he discovered that all the workers in M. ibericus nests were hybrids, with about half of their DNA matching that of the builder harvester ant (Messor structor).

 Source:

Tim Vernimmen 2025 Queen ant makes males of another species for daughters to mate with | New Scientist 3 September