Evolutionary history of inquiline social parasitism in Plagiolepis ants

Social parasitism, i.e. the parasitic dependence of a social species on another free-living species, is one most intriguing phenomena in insects. It has evolved to various levels, extreme form being inquiline parasites which have lost worker caste, and produce only male female sexual offspring that are reared by host force. The syndrome been reported 4 within ant genus Plagiolepis, Europe. Whether parasitism once or multiple times remains however unknown. To address this question, we generated data for 5 – 3 previously described 2 unidentified their hosts from Europe, inferred phylogenetic relationships. We tested Emery’s rule, predicts close relatives. Our results show independently at least genus. Furthermore, found all inquilines were associated with descendants related suggesting sympatric speciation main process leading emergence consistent stricter version rule.