ANT QUEEN LAYS EGGS THAT HATCH INTO TWO SPECIES

Reproduction is strange in many social insects, but the Iberian harvester ant (Messor ibericus) takes the weirdness to the next level. Queens mate with males of another species and then clone them, researchers report today in Nature, which means this ant is the only known organism that propagates two species by itself. Evolutionary biologist Jonathan Romiguier of the University of Montpellier, who led the team, calls M. ibericus “in a sense, the most complex, colonial life form we know of so far.”


Odd to see this on Earth, which is quite hospitable to life. However, I'm familiar with the concept of interspecies reproduction from other planets. It often appears as a safety catch allowing a species to capitalize on any available mate in environments where life is scarce and survival very difficult. It greatly maximizes the ability to mix up genetics and find the best combinations.