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Ants that seem to defy biology – They lay eggs that hatch into another species

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
429 points sampo | 1 comments | 19 Sep 25 12:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.559s | source
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LarsDu88 ◴[19 Sep 25 17:59 UTC] No.45304541[source]▶
This seems on the surface to violate Hamilton's Law (rB > C)

The hybrid worker ants should still share 75% of their DNA with the queen and therefore it makes sense for them to cooperate regardless of the source of DNA for their father.

The M. structor male clones however do not share any DNA with the queen presumably.

I wouldn't be surprised if further studies found that the M. structor genes were behaving selfishly. They must have some sort of aggressive mechanism for hijacking and evicting the queen genes for making clones.

Alternatively there could be a parasitic organism propagating through the reproductive procress.

replies(1): >>45306325 #
1. bsza ◴[19 Sep 25 20:44 UTC] No.45306325[source]▶
All the workers are hybrid. Queen gets to have workers, which she otherwise couldn’t produce. M. structor males get to pass on 100% of their genes. There is no altruism involved.