1
|
Lapeva-Gjonova A, Csősz S, Mifsud D. Further records of social parasitic ants in Europe and review of the Bulgarian species. Biodivers Data J 2024; 12:e123575. [PMID: 38841133 PMCID: PMC11150874 DOI: 10.3897/bdj.12.e123575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Social parasitic ants exploit the colonies of other ant species, either permanently or temporarily. The permanent parasites are amongst the rarest species of ants, although their hosts may be very common. Due to their rarity and often restricted distribution range, most of them are listed as vulnerable. Filling in the gaps in geographical and host ranges will advance our understanding of the social parasitic lifestyle's origin and evolution. New information This study reports the first records of the slave-makers Myrmoxenusalgerianus (Cagniant, 1968) for Europe (Italy, Sicily) and M.ravouxi (André 1896) for Albania and the inquiline Anergatesatratulus (Schenck, 1852) for Malta (Gozo). We also report new localities of Camponotusuniversitatis Forel, 1890 for Albania and Myrmoxenusgordiagini Ruzsky, 1902, M.kraussei (Emery, 1915) and Anergatesatratulus for Bulgaria. Diversity, type of parasite-host relationships, host range, distribution and conservation of social parasitic ant species in Bulgaria are discussed. Although social parasitic ants are still understudied in Bulgaria, they represent 21% of the regional ant fauna.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Albena Lapeva-Gjonova
- Department of Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University, 8 Dragan Tsankov str., Sofia, BulgariaDepartment of Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University, 8 Dragan Tsankov str.SofiaBulgaria
| | - Sándor Csősz
- HUN-REN-ELTE-MTM Integrative Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter ave 1/C, Budapest 1117, HungaryHUN-REN-ELTE-MTM Integrative Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter ave 1/CBudapest 1117Hungary
- Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Institute of Biology, ELTE-Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter ave 1/C, Budapest 1117, HungaryDepartment of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Institute of Biology, ELTE-Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter ave 1/CBudapest 1117Hungary
| | - David Mifsud
- Institute of Earth Systems, Division of Rural Sciences and Food Systems, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, MaltaInstitute of Earth Systems, Division of Rural Sciences and Food Systems, University of MaltaMsida MSD 2080Malta
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Lorenzi MC. Chemically Insignificant Social Parasites Exhibit More Anti-Dehydration Behaviors than Their Hosts. INSECTS 2021; 12:insects12111006. [PMID: 34821806 PMCID: PMC8624806 DOI: 10.3390/insects12111006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Revised: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Simple Summary Social parasites use a variety of deceptive mechanisms to avoid detection by their social-insect hosts and get tolerance in their colonies. One of these mechanisms is chemical insignificance, where social parasites have reduced amounts of recognition cues—hydrocarbons—on their cuticle, thus evading host chemical detection. This exposes social parasites to dehydration stress, as cuticular hydrocarbons also limit body water loss. By analyzing behavioral data from field observations, here we show that a Polistes wasp social parasite exhibits water-saving behaviors; parasites were less active than their cohabiting host foundresses, spent more time at the nest, and rested in the shadow, contradicting the rule that dominant individuals occupy prominent positions at the nest. Abstract Social parasites have evolved adaptations to overcome host resistance as they infiltrate host colonies and establish there. Among the chemical adaptations, a few species are chemically “insignificant”; they are poor in recognition cues (cuticular hydrocarbons) and evade host detection. As cuticular hydrocarbons also serve a waterproofing function, chemical insignificance is beneficial as it protects parasites from being detected but is potentially harmful because it exposes parasites to desiccation stress. Here I tested whether the social parasites Polistes atrimandibularis employ behavioral water-saving strategies when they live at Polistes biglumis colonies. Observations in the field showed that parasites were less active than their cohabiting host foundresses, spent more time at the nest, and rested in the shadowy, back face of the nest, rather than at the front face, which contradicted expectations for the use of space for dominant females—typically, dominants rest at the nest front-face. These data suggest that behavioral adaptations might promote resistance to desiccation stress in chemical insignificant social parasites.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria Cristina Lorenzi
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, LEEC, UR 4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, F-93430 Villetaneuse, France
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Degueldre F, Mardulyn P, Kuhn A, Pinel A, Karaman C, Lebas C, Schifani E, Bračko G, Wagner HC, Kiran K, Borowiec L, Passera L, Abril S, Espadaler X, Aron S. Evolutionary history of inquiline social parasitism in Plagiolepis ants. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2020; 155:107016. [PMID: 33242582 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2020.107016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2020] [Revised: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Social parasitism, i.e. the parasitic dependence of a social species on another free-living social species, is one of the most intriguing phenomena in social insects. It has evolved to various levels, the most extreme form being inquiline social parasites which have lost the worker caste, and produce only male and female sexual offspring that are reared by the host worker force. The inquiline syndrome has been reported in 4 species within the ant genus Plagiolepis, in Europe. Whether inquiline social parasitism evolved once or multiple times within the genus remains however unknown. To address this question, we generated data for 5 inquiline social parasites - 3 species previously described and 2 unidentified species - and their free-living hosts from Europe, and we inferred their phylogenetic relationships. We tested Emery's rule, which predicts that inquiline social parasites and their hosts are close relatives. Our results show that inquiline parasitism evolved independently at least 5 times in the genus. Furthermore, we found that all inquilines were associated with one of the descendants of their most related free-living species, suggesting sympatric speciation is the main process leading to the emergence of the parasitic species, consistent with the stricter version of Emery's rule.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Félicien Degueldre
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Patrick Mardulyn
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Kuhn
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Amélie Pinel
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Celal Karaman
- Trakya University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Balkan Campus, 22030 Edirne, Turkey
| | | | - Enrico Schifani
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences & Environmental Sustainability, Parco Area delle Scienze, 11/a, University of Parma, I-43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Gregor Bračko
- Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Herbert C Wagner
- ÖKOTEAM - Institute for Animal Ecology and Landscape Planning, Bergmanngasse 22, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Kadri Kiran
- Trakya University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Balkan Campus, 22030 Edirne, Turkey
| | - Lech Borowiec
- Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Taxonomy, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
| | - Luc Passera
- Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, France
| | - Sílvia Abril
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Girona, M. Aurèlia Campmany, 69, 17003 Girona, Spain
| | - Xavier Espadaler
- CREAF, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Serge Aron
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Pamminger T, Foitzik S, Metzler D, Pennings PS. Oh sister, where art thou? Spatial population structure and the evolution of an altruistic defence trait. J Evol Biol 2014; 27:2443-56. [PMID: 25262856 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2014] [Revised: 08/28/2014] [Accepted: 08/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of parasite virulence and host defences is affected by population structure. This effect has been confirmed in studies focusing on large spatial scales, whereas the importance of local structure is not well understood. Slavemaking ants are social parasites that exploit workers of another species to rear their offspring. Enslaved workers of the host species Temnothorax longispinosus have been found to exhibit an effective post-enslavement defence behaviour: enslaved workers were observed killing a large proportion of the parasites' offspring. As enslaved workers do not reproduce, they gain no direct fitness benefit from this 'rebellion' behaviour. However, there may be an indirect benefit: neighbouring host nests that are related to 'rebel' nests can benefit from a reduced raiding pressure, as a result of the reduction in parasite nest size due to the enslaved workers' killing behaviour. We use a simple mathematical model to examine whether the small-scale population structure of the host species could explain the evolution of this potentially altruistic defence trait against slavemaking ants. We find that this is the case if enslaved host workers are related to nearby host nests. In a population genetic study, we confirm that enslaved workers are, indeed, more closely related to host nests within the raiding range of their resident slavemaker nest, than to host nests outside the raiding range. This small-scale population structure seems to be a result of polydomy (e.g. the occupation of several nests in close proximity by a single colony) and could have enabled the evolution of 'rebellion' by kin selection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- T Pamminger
- Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany; School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
The genetic population structure of two socially parasitic ants: “the active slave-maker” Myrmoxenus ravouxi and the “degenerate slave-maker” M. kraussei. CONSERV GENET 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s10592-013-0531-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
|
6
|
The Evolution of Inbred Social Systems in Spiders and Other Organisms. ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-394288-3.00003-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
|
7
|
THURIN N, SERY N, GUIMBRETIERE R, ARON S. Colony kin structure and breeding system in the ant genus Plagiolepis. Mol Ecol 2011; 20:3251-60. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05161.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
|
8
|
Abstract
Social Hymenoptera are ideal biological models for the study of the selective forces affecting the evolution of multiple mating (polyandry), because sister species can evolve different lifestyles and mating strategies. Single mating is predicted in workerless social parasites, because the key benefit of multiple mating in social insects, that is, the increase in genetic diversity among worker offspring, does not hold for workerless species. We compared the queen mating frequency between the ant Plagiolepis pygmaea and its derived social parasite P. xene. Previous studies showed that queens of the host P. pygmaea are obligately polyandrous. Here, pedigree analyses of mother-offspring combinations indicate that queens of the parasite P. xene did not revert to single mating; more than 50% of queens mated multiply, with 2-4 males. This result shows that reversal from multiple to single mating may be not selected in polyandrous social insect workerless parasites. We propose that such reversion does not occur when multiple mating is virtually cost free.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- N Thurin
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, Brussels, Belgium
| | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Pennings PS, Achenbach A, Foitzik S. Similar evolutionary potentials in an obligate ant parasite and its two host species. J Evol Biol 2011; 24:871-86. [PMID: 21324025 PMCID: PMC3085125 DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02223.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The spatial structure of host-parasite coevolution is shaped by population structure and genetic diversity of the interacting species. We analysed these population genetic parameters in three related ant species: the parasitic slavemaking ant Protomognathus americanus and its two host species Temnothorax longispinosus and T. curvispinosus. We sampled throughout their range, genotyped ants on six to eight microsatellite loci and an MtDNA sequence and found high levels of genetic variation and strong population structure in all three species. Interestingly, the most abundant species and primary host, T. longispinosus, is characterized by less structure, but lower local genetic diversity. Generally, differences between the species were small, and we conclude that they have similar evolutionary potentials. The coevolutionary interaction between this social parasite and its hosts may therefore be less influenced by divergent evolutionary potentials, but rather by varying selection pressures. We employed different methods to quantify and compare genetic diversity and structure between species and genetic markers. We found that Jost D is well suited for these comparisons, as long as mutation rates between markers and species are similar. If this is not the case, for example, when using MtDNA and microsatellites to study sex-specific dispersal, model-based inference should be used instead of descriptive statistics (such as D or G(ST) ). Using coalescent-based methods, we indeed found that males disperse much more than females, but this sex bias in dispersal differed between species. The findings of the different approaches with regard to genetic diversity and structure were in good accordance with each other.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- P S Pennings
- Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Extreme population differentiation in a vulnerable slavemaking ant with a fragmented distribution. CONSERV GENET 2010. [DOI: 10.1007/s10592-010-0063-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
|
11
|
Hoffman EA, Kovacs JL, Goodisman MAD. Genetic structure and breeding system in a social wasp and its social parasite. BMC Evol Biol 2008; 8:239. [PMID: 18715511 PMCID: PMC2533669 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-8-239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2008] [Accepted: 08/20/2008] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Social insects dominate ecological communities because of their sophisticated group behaviors. However, the intricate behaviors of social insects may be exploited by social parasites, which manipulate insect societies for their own benefit. Interactions between social parasites and their hosts lead to unusual coevolutionary dynamics that ultimately affect the breeding systems and population structures of both species. This study represents one of the first attempts to understand the population and colony genetic structure of a parasite and its host in a social wasp system. Results We used DNA microsatellite markers to investigate gene flow, genetic variation, and mating behavior of the facultative social parasite Vespula squamosa and its primary host, V. maculifrons. Our analyses of genetic variability uncovered that both species possessed similar amounts of genetic variation and failed to show genetic structure over the sampling area. Our analysis of mating system of V. maculifrons and V. squamosa revealed high levels of polyandry and no evidence for inbreeding in the two species. Moreover, we found no significant differences between estimates of worker relatedness in this study and a previous investigation conducted over two decades ago, suggesting that the selective pressures operating on queen mate number have remained constant. Finally, the distribution of queen mate number in both species deviated from simple expectations suggesting that mate number may be under stabilizing selection. Conclusion The general biology of V. squamosa has not changed substantially from that of a typical, nonparasitic Vespula wasp. For example, population sizes of the host and its parasite appear to be similar, in contrast to other social parasites, which often display lower population sizes than their hosts. In addition, parasitism has not caused the mating behavior of V. squamosa queens to deviate from the high levels of multiple mating that typify Vespula wasps. This stands in contrast to some socially parasitic ants, which revert to mating with few males. Overall, the general similarity of the genetic structure of V. maculifrons and V. squamosa presumably reflects the fact that V. squamosa is still capable of independent colony founding and thus reflects an intermediate stage in the evolution of social parasitism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eric A Hoffman
- School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|