ASIAN
MYRMECOLOGY

online first (online version of paper published before print issue)

DOI: 10.20362/am.014001
Asian Myrmecology 14: e014001 (1-9)
article first published online: 20/March/2021

Thelytokous parthenogenesis by dealate queens in the myrmicine ant Monomorium hiten distributed in Nansei Islands, western Japan, with description of the male

FUMINORI ITO¹*, SHOGO MAKITA¹, HIROTAKA NAKAO¹, RYOTA HOSOKAWA¹, TOMONORI KIKUCHI² and SEIKI YAMANE³

Abstract:

Thelytokous reproduction by dealate queens in Monomorium hiten Terayama, 1996, collected from four islands of the Nansei Islands (Okinawa Prefecture, Japan) was confirmed in the field and laboratory. Dissection revealed that all dealate queens (N = 38) found in nine field collected colonies were uninseminated. Orphan colonies reared in the laboratory produced alate queens and they laid eggs from which workers or alate queens emerged. Alate queens reared in isolation produced nanitic workers without food supply. Two laboratory colonies produced a total of four males; their morphology is described.

Keywords:

Thelytoky, claustral colony foundation, Okinawa, ovary

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¹Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Ikenobe, Miki 761-0795, Japan

²Faculty of Agriculture, Marine Biosystems Research Center, Chiba University, Kamogawa, Japan

³Haruyama-cho, Kagoshima, Japan

*Corresponding author: ito.fuminori@kagawa-u.ac.jp