I just realized that Messor barbarus can't sting.
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I just realized that Messor barbarus can't sting. And now I need to rethink something I thought was obvious about seed collecting ants.
Pogonomyrmex and Veromessor (the genuses of harvester ants we have in the Americas) can sting.
It seems that much like "Army Ants" the group "harvester ants" isn't as cohesive as I thought.
That said... they are somewhat related, both practice social hybridogenesis.
I'm stunned. Ants shock me every single day! They can't keep getting away with this!
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I just realized that Messor barbarus can't sting. And now I need to rethink something I thought was obvious about seed collecting ants.
Pogonomyrmex and Veromessor (the genuses of harvester ants we have in the Americas) can sting.
It seems that much like "Army Ants" the group "harvester ants" isn't as cohesive as I thought.
That said... they are somewhat related, both practice social hybridogenesis.
I'm stunned. Ants shock me every single day! They can't keep getting away with this!
This is absolutely wild. Two populations of ants (Cataglyphis hispanica) in the deserts of Spain, the same species but separate genetic lineages. All workers are hybrids of both populations but in both cases, through social hybridogenesis the reproductive queens and males are only of one lineage or the other.
Queens of both species must mate out to produce workers (hybrids) but the workers never in turn reproduce.
They show it's been like this for a long long time!
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.2396
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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This is absolutely wild. Two populations of ants (Cataglyphis hispanica) in the deserts of Spain, the same species but separate genetic lineages. All workers are hybrids of both populations but in both cases, through social hybridogenesis the reproductive queens and males are only of one lineage or the other.
Queens of both species must mate out to produce workers (hybrids) but the workers never in turn reproduce.
They show it's been like this for a long long time!
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.2396@futurebird I came here as soon as I heard to make sure you had caught up with the news. You had, of course. Way ahead of me.
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@futurebird I came here as soon as I heard to make sure you had caught up with the news. You had, of course. Way ahead of me.
Thanks for thinking of me!
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Thanks for thinking of me!
My pleasure.
Prior to finding your account, I'd never really given ants much thought. But your continual posting about your relentless and unapologetic fascination in the wonder of ants has brought me much joy and opened my eyes somewhat.
So ... thanks for that!
