''Cataglyphis cursor'' is a species of

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

in the genus '' Cataglyphis''. Described in 1846, it is known only from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

parts of France.

Reproduction

Parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek grc, παρθένος, translit=parthénos, lit=virgin, label=none + grc, γένεσις, translit=génesis, lit=creation, label=none) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and developmen ...

is a natural form of reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without

fertilization Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Proce ...

Thelytoky Thelytoky (from the Greek ''thēlys'' "female" and ''tokos'' "birth") is a type of parthenogenesis in which females are produced from unfertilized eggs, as for example in aphids. Thelytokous parthenogenesis is rare among animals and reported in a ...

is a particular form of parthenogenesis in which the development of a female individual occurs from an unfertilized egg.

Automixis ''Automixis'' is the fusion of (typically haploid) nuclei or gametes derived from the same individual. The term covers several reproductive mechanisms, some of which are parthenogenetic. Diploidy might be restored by the doubling of the chromoso ...

is a form of thelytoky, but there are several kinds of automixis. The kind of automixis relevant here is one in which two haploid products from the same

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately r ...

combine to form a diploid

zygote A zygote (, ) is a eukaryotic cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism. In multicell ...

Central fusion and terminal fusion automixis

The process of automictic thelytoky with central fusion has been studied in ''C. cursor''. Central fusion allows heterozygosity to be largely maintained.

Queen ant A queen ant (formally known as a gyne) is an adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony; generally she will be the mother of all the other ants in that colony. Some female ants, such as the ''Cataglyphis'', do not need to mate to produce offs ...

s use this process to produce female reproductive progeny (

gyne The gyne (, from Greek γυνή, "woman") is the primary reproductive female caste of social insects (especially ants, wasps, and bees of order Hymenoptera, as well as termites). Gynes are those destined to become queens, whereas female workers ...

s), thus increasing the transmission of their own genes through the germline lineage. Also, queens use sexual reproduction to produce worker ants. In ''C. cursor'' colonies with a single queen, 96.4% of daughter queens arise from thelytokous parthenogenetic eggs, while 97.9% of daughter workers arise from fertilized eggs.

Subspecies

Besides the type subspecies, the following three are recognized: * ''Cataglyphis cursor'' subsp. ''aterrimus'' Pisarski, 1967 * ''Cataglyphis cursor'' subsp. ''creticus'' ( Forel, 1910) * ''Cataglyphis cursor'' subsp. ''rockingeri'' (Forel, 1911)

References

Formicinae Hymenoptera of Europe Insects described in 1846 Taxa named by Étienne Laurent Joseph Hippolyte Boyer de Fonscolombe {{formicinae-stub