#messor

Yes, I actually just read it yesterday, after hearing about it on Science Friday!

This is crazy, and as far as I know, no one has ever found anything like this before!

Ant queen lays eggs that hatch into two species

Bizarre discovery of interspecies cloning “almost impossible to believe,” biologists say

Reproduction is strange in many social insects, but the Iberian harvester ant (Messor ibericus) takes the weirdness to the next level. Queens mate with males of another species and then clone them, researchers report today in Nature, which means this ant is the only known organism that propagates two species by itself. Evolutionary biologist Jonathan Romiguier of the University of Montpellier, who led the team, calls M. ibericus “in a sense, the most complex, colonial life form we know of so far.” The finding “is almost impossible to believe and pushes our understanding of evolutionary biology,” says Michael Goodisman, an evolutionary biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved with the new research. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, social insects reveal another surprise.”

Read more: Ant queen lays eggs that hatch into two species

Iberian Harvester Ants, Messor ibericus, can produce offspring of two different species, according to a new Nature study. Messor ibericus queens can produce males of Messor structor in addition to their own species. This bizarre observation is at odds with how scientists conventionally think about species, so it may prompt a rethink of these already blurry definitions.

Read the paper: One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants | Nature

as plants begin to fruit and dry out, infamous seed lovers Messor barbarus help themselves to the free food. when walking alongside even a small patch of their chosen crop, like this orchard grass, you can easily hear the rustling and plucking caused by countless individuals who will then bring each seed back to their distant pantry. despite their size and work ethic though, it takes very little for them to deem something - me, for example - too scary to continue working

Messor barbarus

notorious hoarders and bobbleheads Messor barbarus are known for their "pantry" chambers, dry sections of the nest where they keep seeds in order to prevent them from germinating. i like when they carry these long bits of dry grass because it looks like they're shooting some form of hazardous sand beam from their mouths

i better not see any of you claim you love women with swords without mentioning her

ant movement always has so much more nuance and personality when viewed up close. look at how these Messor ants smell each other, tilting their heads for a more favorable position. at one point about halfway through the video, one ant begins to walk away while the other keeps on trying to smell it, seemingly unsatisfied with the initial impression. i was going to remove the sound but if you want to listen to a singing eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), that is also there

Messor barbarus

Messor structor