Morphometry and colony structure of ants of the genus Cardiocondyla (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Georgia

Abstract

The ant genus Cardiocondyla is characterised by a remarkable variability of reproductive life histories and colony structures. Little is known about the C. stambuloffii group, whose distribution extends from southeast Europe to central and eastern Asia. We here present data on the structure of Cardiocondyla colonies from southern Georgia. Morphometry and sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunits I and II indicates that it is distinct from the other species of this group (C. gibbosa, C. koshewnikovi, C. stambuloffii, and C. tibetana). Microsatellite analysis revealed a high nestmate relatedness and frequent inbreeding, matching the observation of exclusively wingless males and the phylogenetic position of the group in the “Palaearctic clade,” in which colonies are typically single-queened.

Keywords:

• Ergatoid ants
• monogyny
• Cardiocondyla stambuloffii
• Cardiocondyla koshewnikovi

Acknowledgements

We thank Shalva Barjadze and Tina Wanke for their help in the field, and Mathilde Vidal and Andreas Trindl for support in the lab. We are grateful to Gregor Bračko, Sandor Csősz, Kadri Kiran, Bernhard Seifert, and Tina Wanke for samples of C. stambuloffii, C. koshewnikovi, and other species. We also thank the editor and the reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Rustaveli-DAAD joint fellowship programme 2019 (57502289) and DFG (He1623/30 and He1623/42).