Overview

• The Nature study reports that Messor ibericus queens clonally generate Messor structor–like males from stored sperm and then use those males to sire hybrid worker castes.
• Population genomics of 390 ants across five Messor species found colonies dominated by first-generation hybrids with maternal M. ibericus and paternal M. structor ancestry.
• In lab-isolated colonies, queens produced two distinct male morphs matching M. ibericus and M. structor, with both male types sharing M. ibericus mitochondrial DNA.
• Clonal maintenance of the M. structor nuclear genome explains hybrid workers in regions without M. structor colonies, including sites such as Sicily thousands of kilometers away.
• The developmental mechanism behind cross-species male cloning remains unknown, and it is untested whether the cloned M. structor–like males can mate successfully with wild M. structor queens.