Ant Queen First Known Animal to Give Birth to Two Different Species

Florida Harvester Ant – Pogonomyrmex badius, Lake June-in-Winter Scrub State Park, Lake Placid, Florida. Credit: Judy Gallagher – CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Researchers reported that a queen ant successful confederate Europe has go the archetypal known carnal to consistently nutrient offspring of antithetic species, a uncovering that questions basal assumptions astir reproduction and taxon boundaries.

Scientists studying the Iberian harvester ant, Messor ibericus, recovered that queens not lone sire sons of their ain taxon but besides laic eggs that make into males of a distantly related species, Messor structor. The startling result, archetypal documented Sept. 3 successful the diary Nature, shows queens cloning males of different taxon arsenic portion of their mean beingness cycle, researchers said.

“That was very, precise abnormal. I mean, it was benignant of a paradox,” said survey co-author Jonathan Romiguier, an evolutionary biologist astatine the University of Montpellier, describing aboriginal puzzlement erstwhile tract surveys turned up thriving M. ibericus colonies with nary adjacent M. structor populations. “In the aboriginal stages, it was benignant of a gag successful the team. But the much we got results, the much it became a proposal and not a gag anymore.”

The ant became the archetypal known carnal to nutrient offspring from an wholly antithetic species

In astir ant societies, queens mate once, store sperm, and usage it to nutrient workers and aboriginal queens, portion males beryllium chiefly to fertilize queens and past die. In M. ibericus colonies, workers are hybrids produced erstwhile queens mate with M. structor males. 

Queens that mate lone with males of their ain taxon thin to nutrient mostly queens, a bias thought to stem from alleged “royal cheater” genes. That reliance connected M. structor males to nutrient workers made the isolated M. ibericus colonies a implicit enigma to the researchers.

Ant Queen Gives Birth to Two Different Species

Researchers uncover an antithetic endurance strategy successful Iberian harvester ants that turns basal biology connected its head.#ant #species #iberian #messor #ibericus #structor #italy #sicily #jettison #jessicapurcell #animal #biology #nature pic.twitter.com/etpb6mkbL2

— Ervan Erfian (@ervanerfian) September 15, 2025

To recognize the anomaly, Romiguier’s squad sampled 132 antheral ants from 26 colonies and recovered 58 hairy males, a fig which is emblematic of M. ibericus, and 74 hairless males that genetically matched M. structor. Crucially, mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother, showed that the hairless M. structor males carried the aforesaid maternal enactment arsenic their M. ibericus nestmates, indicating the queens themselves produced them.

Lab enactment showed it was not an anomaly

Laboratory enactment bolstered the case. Genetic sequencing of freshly laid eggs from 16 captive queens showed astir 9% contained M. structor males. Researchers besides straight observed a azygous queen producing males of some taxon implicit eighteen months.

The probe squad has coined the word “xenoparity,” which means the commencement of a antithetic species, to picture the phenomenon. How queens impact the cloning by seemingly producing males that transportation M. structor atomic genomes portion retaining maternal mitochondrial DNA remains unclear, Romiguier said. He and colleagues said further enactment volition beryllium needed to find the molecular mechanics and find however agelong the strategy has been successful place. The 2 taxon diverged betwixt astir 5 cardinal years agone and, possibly, lone a fewer 1000 years ago.

An ant queen conscionable gave commencement to 2 antithetic species, stunning scientists.

Researchers studying Iberian harvester ants successful Europe uncovered 1 of the strangest reproductive systems successful the earthy world. A azygous queen tin laic eggs that hatch into 2 wholly different… pic.twitter.com/hiMkz7zoFn

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 14, 2025

“This is astir similar subject fiction,” said Denis Fournier, an evolutionary biologist astatine the Free University of Brussels who was not progressive successful the study. “It’s jaw-dropping. Most of america larn that taxon boundaries are firm, yet present is simply a strategy wherever ants regularly transverse them arsenic portion of mean life.”

Researchers said the find raises caller questions astir cooperation, conflict, and dependency successful evolution, suggesting that different unexpected reproductive systems whitethorn exist, waiting to beryllium found.