Most ant species are born into royalty. But for Indian jumping ants, female workers can fight for the crown.

Various ant species in the East African swamps sometimes fight for the position of queen, increasing the chance its genetic descendants could go on to take the reins.

"There's a lot more variability among females of different mating strategies in certain ant species," says British ecologist Mark Pearson of University College London, whose work is published online in Science.

Ants no bigger than about 1 millimeter (2/3 inch) can be queens and they dominate for years. Humankind has only ever domesticated a handful of ant species in recent years, but in Africa there are up to 73 species of ants.

To figure out what keeps Asia's jumping ants in check, Pearson and colleagues looked at the yak ant, Trichosurus vulpecula, the most common ant in areas of eastern Africa dominated by jumping ants, including Tanzania.

Most of the clones of "the strongest queen" were equal in size, build, and social status — making them male clones, says Pearson. And when the scientists put ant queens or pheromones into ants that were far outnumbered by neighboring queens — those randomly mixed communities of ants — they tended to breed less frequently or not at all.

"That goes beyond just the queen," says Pearson. "So it's kind of evidence for some innate cue, or ability on the part of [parasites] to restore queen gene expression, or improve fitness if they do that." D.Y.

Epilogue

The flip side of victory is defeat.Depending on the arrogant ant in question, losing a sperm battle can be a blessing or a curse.

For instance, the larger monkey ants in the genus Rhagrina, similar to the Indian jumping ants, can store their sperm in special tubes. If a rival female sticks her arm through a wrong tube, the invading singleton has a better chance of not only pushing her out, but also passing all of her genes on to her offspring.

Of course, the other problem arises from the queen who this impudent invader has replaced. The old queen, which eventually rises to the top as the strongest queen among her brethren, will no longer be nice to the intruder.

"The queen in these species is trying to right the wrong of her initial acquisition of the species," says Pearson.

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