Ants Seem to Defy Biology: They Lay Eggs That Hatch into Another Species

Re:Ants Seem to Defy Biology: They Lay Eggs That Hatch into ... by jcul on Friday September 19, 2025 @04:24PM (#45306110)

> It was very difficult, because in lab conditions, it’s nearly impossible to have males,” says co-author Jonathan Romiguier, an ecologist at the University of Montpellier in France, to New Scientist’s Tim Vernimmen. “We had something like 50 colonies and monitored them for two years without a single male being born. Then we got lucky.

This confuses me too.

Did the queen once mate with one of these males and save the sperm for two years? Or are the queens somehow born with a copy of the genetic material.

Or does the old queen produce one, which mates with the new queen, and then dies off. And the new queen is able to hold onto that sperm for years (forever?). And they only produce a handful of males for this purpose?

Also why is it so difficult to have males in lab conditions?

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Re:Ants Seem to Defy Biology: They Lay Eggs That Hatch into ... by rsynnott on Friday September 19, 2025 @06:41PM (#45307614)

Yup; in most ants the queen has a bit of an orgy, once, and then saves the sperm for the rest of her life. Male ants (in most species) are really only useful for starting new nests.

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