Abstract
Ant workers can mate and reproduce in a few hundreds of species belonging to the phylogenetically basal poneromorph subfamilies (sensu Bolton 2003). We report the first occurrence of gamergates (i.e. mated reproductive workers) in a myrmeciomorph subfamily. In a colony of Myrmecia pyriformis that was collected without a queen, workers continued to be produced over a period of 3 years in the laboratory. Behavioural observations and ovarian dissections indicated that three workers were mated and produced the diploid offspring. The Myrmeciinae are thus another taxon in which the selective benefits of sexual reproduction by workers can be investigated.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mike Schwarz, Remko Leijs and Katja Hoogendorn for logistic and technical support during fieldwork. We thank Roberto Keller, Thibaud Monnin and Kazuki Tsuji for their constructive criticisms. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 554 (C3) and the Graduiertenkolleg ‘Grundlagen des Arthropodenverhaltens’. The ants were collected under scientific investigation license no. A2247 issued by National Parks and Wildlife Service of New South Wales, and exported under permits nos. PWS P993042 and PWS 20002478 issued by Environment Australia. The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.
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Dietemann, V., Peeters, C. & Hölldobler, B. Gamergates in the Australian ant subfamily Myrmeciinae. Naturwissenschaften 91, 432–435 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-004-0549-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-004-0549-1