ArticleCommunications biology2021
Worker ants promote outbreeding by transporting young queens to alien nests.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Frequent Queen Replacement and Presence of Unrelated Queens in Colonies of a Functionally Monogynous Ant Species.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Assisted dispersal and reproductive success in an ant species with matchmaking.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- A high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly ofFrontiers in genetics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Choosing the right mating partner is one of the most critical decisions in the life of a sexually reproducing organism and is the basis of sexual selection. This choice is usually assumed to be made by one or both of the sexual partners. Here, we describe a system in which a third party - the siblings - promote outbreeding by their sisters: workers of the tiny ant Cardiocondyla elegans carry female sexuals from their natal nest over several meters and drop them in the nest of another, unrelated colony to promote outbreeding with wingless, stationary males. Workers appear to choose particular recipient colonies into which they transfer numerous female sexuals. Assisted outbreeding and indirect female choice in the ant C. elegans are comparable to human matchmaking and suggest a hitherto unknown aspect of natural history - third party sexual selection. Our study highlights that research at the intersection between social evolution and reproductive biology might reveal surprising facets of animal behavior.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.