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A parasitic, parthenogenetic ant with only queens and without workers or males

Keiko Hamaguchi1, Kyoichi Kinomura2, Ren Kitazawa3

  • 1Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 68 Nagaikyutaroh, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto city, Kyoto 612-0855, Japan.

Current Biology : CB
|February 24, 2026
PubMed

The typical ant colony consists of reproductive females ('queens'), non-reproductive females ('workers') and males that die shortly after mating1. Rare deviations from this standard pattern2 include the loss of workers in socially parasitic ants3 ('inquilines') and the absence of males in a few parthenogenetic taxa4. Here, we add a new variant: Temnothorax kinomurai5 is the first ant species known to lack both workers and males and to consist exclusively of queens.

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