When i first found hypoponera here, I asked the forum about polygyny. I noticed several queens in all the colonies I found. Their abdomen was bloated, and they played a docile role, never venturing outward and always looking for workers to guide them. They would tandem run with workers until the worker entered the nest. Then I found a mature colony in a flower pot. It was single queened. Not only that, the queen was AGGRESSIVE. She dismembered foreign workers even though her daughters accepted them. The colony eventually died. When examined, the queen had a noticeably larger mesosoma, along with wing scars and eyes. The polygynous queens were identical to workers except for behavior and size of their gaster. So I concluded the polygynous queens were in fact gamergates. Hypoponera winged males leave the nest during flights, so it seems impossible. But hypoponera opacior are known to have ergatoid males, which are workerlike and mate with queens while they are still in their pupae. Perhaps some of these pupae were workers. In fact, the majority of ponerinae have gamergates. So it's not unlikely that the polygynous queens are gamergates.
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