4 replies to this topic

[Barristan]

Is worker polymorphism genus specific or can and ant genus have species with worker polymorphism and without?

 

Was thinking if I could add it to all species belonging to a genus in my database if I know at least one species which has this criteria.

[drtrmiller]

Solenopsis molesta are monomorphic, S. fugax is dimorphic, S. geminata is polymorphic.  Clearly, there can be variation within a genus, but you'd need to examine the individual species within the genus to make that determination.  The trait is species-specific, not genus-specific.

Edited by drtrmiller, June 27 2018 - 1:59 PM.

[Barristan]

Thank you for your answer terry we already had that discussion about Solenopsis in chat. But what about other genera. Are there Pheidole species that are not polymorphic (I include dimorphism here too), or Camponotus, or Messor? Or are there Lasius species which are polymorphic, I can't think about one.

[drtrmiller]

Identification keys for Pheidole specifically reference dimorphism as a distinguished trait for the genus, while also acknowledging that a small number of Pheidole are polymorphic.  ID keys are a good reference for your exact question, thought it's important to recognize that worker morphology may vary even between bioregions.

 

I would not blanket list an entire genus as having a single worker morphology unless I could find references to verify it.

Edited by drtrmiller, June 27 2018 - 6:03 PM.

[CoolColJ]

There are Carebara without majors, so it is species specific in some genus