Evolution of social parasitism in ants

Abstract

Slave raids of Amazon ants, the beheading of the host colony's queen by a parasitic Bothriomyrmex female, or the protracted throttling of the host queen by an Epimyrma female which has penetrated a Leptothorax nest, are among the most intriguing behaviors to be observed in social parasitic ants. The evolutionary origin of these behaviors, however, is quite obscure, and further work is needed to elucidate how parasitic life cycles could have arisen from the ordinary social organization of ants.