Morphometry and Colony Structure of the ant Cardiocondyla sp. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Georgia

The ant genus Cardiocondyla is characterized by a remarkable variability of reproductive life histories and colony structures. While previous studies have focused on species groups from Southeast Asia, Africa, and Western Europe, little is known about the C. stambuloffii group, which ranges from Southeast Europe to Central and Eastern Asia. We here present data on the structure of Cardiocondyla colonies from Southern Georgia. Morphometry and sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunits I and II did not allow to clearly assign the taxon to C. stambuloffii or C. koshewnikovi and we here refer to it as Cardiocondyla sp. Our microsatellite analysis revealed a high nestmate relatedness and frequent inbreeding, matching the observation of exclusively wingless males and the phylogenetic position of the group in the “palearctic clade,” in which colonies are typically single-queened.