Iberian harvester ants (Messor ibericus) rely on hardy workers that are hybrids of their own species and another one, Messor structor. But the queens don’t bother keeping any M. structor males around: they make their own. M. ibericus queens can lay eggs that contain only M. structor DNA in their nuclei. They then mate with those M. structor ants to produce the hybrid workers. In effect, M. ibericus has domesticated M. structor and its genome, says evolutionary biologist Jonathan Romiguier, who co-authoured the research.
From the Nature Briefing mailing list.