Iberian ant queens lay eggs that hatch into another species

Mind. Blown.

According to this article in the Smithsonian magazine, Iberian harvester ant queens produce offspring of their own species and of the builder harvester ant, seemingly by cloning males

I'm gonna have to try reading the article again in the morning when I'm a bit fresher...

Scientists recently discovered that Iberian harvester ant queens (Messor ibericus) mate with males of another species, the builder harvester ant (Messor structor). When they do, the M. ibericus queens store the M. structor male’s sperm, then use it to fertilize some of the eggs they lay. Researchers think the M. ibericus queens remove their own genetic material from the eggs’ nuclei, so that when those eggs hatch, they effectively turn out to be M. structor male clones.

Well, this is intriguing, indeed!

As an aside, I was heartened to see the following in the linked article:

“The classic concept says that [a species] is a group of organisms with similar physical and genetic characteristics that can reproduce with each other in nature and produce fertile offspring,” says Xim Cerdá, an ecologist at Doñana Biological Station in Spain who was not involved with the research, to Miguel Ángel Criado at El País. “But it turns out that’s not the case; two species are needed here. We’re going to have to rethink the concept.”

Just what constitutes a species is a lot deeper and more interesting a question than I was taught in freshman biology class in high school!

Thanks for sharing this.