The Biological Rulebook Was Just Rewritten--by Ants

[erronis]

https://www.404media.co/the-biological-rulebook-was-just-rewritten-by-ants/?ref=the-abstract-newsletter
Becky Ferreira

Iberian harvester ant queens clone males of a different species in a never-before-seen case of reproduction and domestication.

M. ibericus and M. structor males laid in the same colony. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09425-w

Same mama, different species
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w?ref=404media.co
Y. Juvé, C. Lutrat, A. Ha, et al. “One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants.” Nature.]

Scientists have discovered a gnarly reproductive strategy that is unlike anything ever documented in nature: Ant queens that produce offspring from two entirely different species by cloning the “alien genome” of males from another lineage. This unique behavior has been dubbed “xenoparity,” according to a new study.

Researchers were first tipped off to this bizarre adaptation after they kept finding builder harvester ants (Messor structor) in the colonies of Iberian harvester ants (Messor ibericus). Field and laboratory observations revealed that, in addition to mating with males of their own species, M. ibericus queens mate with M structor. The queens store and clone this sperm to produce hybrids with M. structor genomes and M. ibericus mitochondria. Even though these two ant species diverged five million years ago and don’t share the exact same range, the queens rely on M. structor males exclusively for its worker caste, suggesting a “domestication-like process,” the study reports.

“Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring,” said researchers co-led by Y. Juvé, C. Lutrat, and A. Ha of the University of Montpellier. “Here, we report that this rule has been transgressed by Messor ibericus ants, with females producing individuals from two different species.”

“M. ibericus queens strictly depend on males of M. structor, which is a well-differentiated, non-sister species,” the team added. “To our knowledge, females needing to clone members of another species have not previously been observed.”

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