Social-Parasite Ant Produces All-Queen Offspring
Temnothorax kinomurai invades nests of its relative T. makora, replacing the host queen while workers continue tending the nest; the parasite’s queens reproduce parthenogenetically, producing only queen offspring in both lab (six colonies yielding 43 offspring) and field (seven successful invasions yielding 57 offspring). The study, published in Current Biology on Feb 23, 2026, notes the all-queen strategy is rare and geographically limited to nine locations in Japan.
