Nonflying Reproductives in Ants

Synonyms

Brachypterous queen; Dichthadiiform queen; Dichthadiigyne; Ergatoid queen; Gamergate

Insect flight allows better defense, foraging, and especially dispersal. However wing muscles are large and expensive both to manufacture and to maintain. In a substantial number of solitary insects, wing loss evolved as a trade-off for higher fecundity. In ants however, queens become permanently flightless not to increase egg-laying rates but as a consequence of alternative strategies of colonial reproduction. In most species, young queens disperse during a brief solo flight, after which they found a new colony alone (independent colony foundation, ICF). In other species, existing colonies divide in half as young queens walk together with nestmate workers to a new nesting site (colony fission, also called dependent colony foundation, DCF). This dichotomy between ICF and DCF is often reflected by the loss of winged queens. Flightless reproductives are known in at least 75 genera belonging to...