Abstract
Mother–son mating (oedipal mating) is practically non-existent in social Hymenoptera, as queens typically avoid inbreeding, mate only early in life and do not mate again after having begun to lay eggs. In the ant genus Cardiocondyla mating occurs among sib in the natal nests. Sex ratios are extremely female-biased and young queens face the risk of remaining without mating partners. Here, we show that virgin queens of Cardiocondyla argyrotricha produce sons from their own unfertilized eggs and later mate with them to produce female offspring from fertilized eggs. Oedipal mating may allow C. argyrotricha queens to found new colonies when no mating partners are available and thus maintains their unusual life history combining monogyny, mating in the nest, and low male production. Our result indicates that a trait that sporadically occurs in solitary haplodiploid animals may evolve also in social Hymenoptera under appropriate ecological and social conditions.
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Acknowledgments
We thank David General, Palawan State University, and Andreas Schulz, Leverkusen, for the help with collecting the ants and for the valuable comments on the manuscript. The study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (He 1623/22).
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The experiments of the study comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Communicated by: Sven Thatje
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Schmidt, C.V., Frohschammer, S., Schrempf, A. et al. Virgin ant queens mate with their own sons to avoid failure at colony foundation. Naturwissenschaften 101, 69–72 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1126-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1126-2