On Tue, 23 Oct 2001, Andrew Clough wrote:
> I recall hearing that when ants reproduce the Queen provides more of the
> genes than the drone. Can anyone confirm this?
Ants, like many other eusocial insects, are haplodiploid. So yes,
sisters actually share 3/4 of their genes rather than just half. This
is reflected in kin-selection behavior, and in fact is a major driving
force in much of ant evolution, including eusociality itself. Though
eusociality is possible in diploid species such as the naked mole rat,
it is extremely rare. Haplodiploidy makes it much more likely that
evolution will favor worker ants that contribute more toward the care
of their sister-factory than to reproducing themselves personally.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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