Ants are important components of most terrestrial habitats, and a better knowledge of the
diversity of their life histories is essential to understand many aspects of ecosystem …

Ants are among the most successful organisms on Earth. It has been suggested that forming
symbioses with nutrient-supplementing microbes may have contributed to their success, by …

Highlights•Lifespan and fecundity are linked.•Queen fitness depends on the quality and
compatibility of the mate.•Genes implicated with aging are conserved in ants and flies, but …

The evolution of eukaryotic organisms is often strongly influenced by microbial symbionts
that confer novel traits to their hosts. Here we describe the intracellular Enterobacteriaceae …

Introduced populations of invasive organisms have to cope with novel environmental
challenges, while having reduced genetic variation caused by founder effects. The …

Social insect queens and workers can engage in conflict over reproductive allocation when
they have different fitness optima. Here, we show that queens have control over queen …

The world-wide fauna of the genus Cardiocondyla is assessed to have 79 currently
recognized species and is subdivided into 14 informal species groups plus three …

Developmental plasticity allows for the remarkable morphological specialization of
individuals into castes in eusocial species of Hymenoptera. Developmental trajectories that …

Abstract Background Non-pollinating Sycophaginae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) form
small communities within Urostigma and Sycomorus fig trees. The species show differences …

Plastic gene expression underlies phenotypic plasticity and plastically expressed genes
evolve under different selection regimes compared with ubiquitously expressed genes …