Colony and population structure in Pachycondyla cf. inversa, a ponerine ant with primary polygyny

Queens of the neotropical ponerine Pachycondyla cf. inversa may found their colonies co-operatively (pleometrosis) and still co-exist when the colony becomes mature (primary polygyny). We investigated the genetic structure of colonies from a Brazilian population by using microsatellites. In both queens and workers, inbreeding coefficients were significantly different from zero. No evidence for a geographical substructuring of the population was found. Heterozygote deficiency can probably be explained by a temporal substructure of the population, i.e. mating in temporally distinct mating swarms. Nestmate queens were typically not related. A comparison of the microsatellite genotypes of queens and workers indicated that some queens were multiply inseminated.