T. kinomurai Queens Produce 100% Female Offspring Without Males, Yielding 43 Queens in Lab Tests
Updated
Updated · DOGOnews · May 13
T. kinomurai Queens Produce 100% Female Offspring Without Males, Yielding 43 Queens in Lab Tests
2 articles · Updated · DOGOnews · May 13
Six T. kinomurai colonies produced 43 offspring in lab nest boxes, and every one was a queen, resolving a 40-year mystery over how the species reproduces.
Egg-development analysis showed the parasitic queens can lay eggs without male fertilization, making each daughter queen almost genetically identical to her mother.
Seven lab-raised queens then successfully seized T. makora nests in the wild and produced 57 more offspring, again all queens.
T. kinomurai survives by invading related ant colonies, killing the resident queen and having the host workers unknowingly rear its offspring.
The species remains rare—found in just nine locations across Japan—limiting the broader threat from this all-female reproductive strategy.
A parasitic ant species has no males or workers. Is this the ultimate evolutionary endgame?
How can an all-queen ant that only creates clones defend against total extinction?