4 replies to this topic

[DanishGuy]

Example: Lasius Niger queen mate with other Lasius male?

[Shaye]

Some can I believe. There are a few mentions of hybrids. Been a while since I last thought about this.

[AntswerMe]

Yeah some can. In the U.S. there are some Solenopsis invicta X richteri hybrid ants with both red and black colors.

[Serafine]

Usually no. Also Lasius has subgenuses like Lasius s str, Chtonolasius and Dendrolasius - you might have luck with two Lasius s str (chances are very low though) but the different subspecies are definitely incompatible.

There are some very rare species though that depend on each other, there's actually two related species that NEED to mate with males from the other species because that's the only way they can produce workers (males from the same species only allow them to produce alates). So yes, there are some exceptions but they are rare and it doesn't depend on how the ants looks like (ants don't really care about optics) but how it smells. Mating pheromones are important that's why the 30+ Tetramorium subspecies that look EXACTLY the same do not mate with each other.

Edited by Serafine, July 30 2017 - 12:44 AM.

[Ameise]

I've been wondering if Camponotus of the same subgenus can interbreed. They are all very similar to one another. Half the time, you can barely distinguish them, and brood boosting even across subgenus (I've given nearcticus brood to chromaiodes) usually works.

Edited by Ameise, July 30 2017 - 11:13 AM.