Convergent evolution of the army ant syndrome and congruence in big-data phylogenetics

Army ants are a charismatic group of organisms characterized by a suite of morphological and behavioral adaptations that includes obligate collective foraging, frequent colony relocation, and highly specialized wingless queens. This “army ant syndrome” underlies the ecological success of army ants and its evolution has been the subject of considerable debate. It has been argued to have arisen once or multiple times within the ant subfamily Dorylinae. To address this question in a phylogenetic framework I generated data from 2,166 loci and a comprehensive taxon sampling representing all 27 genera and 155 or approximately 22% of doryline species. Most analyses show strong support for convergent evolution of the army ant syndrome in the Old and New World but certain relationships are sensitive to analytics. I examine the signal present in this data set and find that conflict is diminished when only loci less likely to violate common phylogenetic model assumptions are considered. I also pro...