Ooceraea hainingensis sp. nov.: A new Chinese Ooceraea (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Dorylinae) species with a dealate queen, closely allied to the queenless clonal raider ant O. biroi

Abstract

The clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi, is a queenless species that reproduces asexually, and these traits make it an attractive model system for laboratory research. However, it is unclear where on the ant phylogeny these traits evolved, partly because few closely related species have been described and studied. Here, we describe a new raider ant species, Ooceraea hainingensis sp. nov., from Zhejiang, China. This species is closely related to O. biroi but can be distinguished by the following features: 1) workers of O. hainingensis sp. nov. have an obvious promesonotal suture and a metanotal groove, whereas these characters are ambiguous in O. biroi; and 2) the subpetiolar process of O. hainingensis is prominent and anteroventrally directed like a thumb with sublinear posteroventral margin, while in O. biroi, it is anteroventrally directed but slightly backward-bent. Molecular phylogenetic analyses confirm that O. hainingensis is genetically distinct from O. biroi. Importantly, unlike O. biroi, O. hainingensis has a queen caste with wings and well-developed eyes. This suggests that the loss of the queen caste and transition to asexual reproduction by workers is specific to O. biroi and occurred after that species diverged from closely related congeneric species.