Data for: The rediscovery of the putative ant social parasite Manica parasitica syn. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) reveals an unexpected endoparasite syndrome

Parasitism is ubiquitous across the tree of life, comprising approximately half of all animal species. Social insect colonies attract many pathogens, endo- and ectoparasites, and are exploited by social parasites, which usurp the social environment of their hosts for survival and reproduction. Exploitation by parasites and pathogens versus social parasites may cause similar behavioral and morphological modifications. Ants possess two overlapping syndromes: the social parasite and endoparasite syndromes. Upon rediscovering two populations of the putative social parasite Manica parasitica in the Sierra Nevadas, we test the hypothesis that M. parasitica is an independently evolving social parasite species relative to its host M. bradleyi. We evaluate traits used to discriminate M. parasitica from M. bradleyi, and examine the morphology and behavior of M. parasitica in the context of ant parasitic syndromes. We find that M. parasitica is not a social parasite species. Instead, M. parasitica..., , , This README file was generated on 2023-12-15 by Matthew Prebus

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Data for \"The rediscovery of the putative ant social parasite Manica parasitica syn. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) reveals an unexpected endoparasite syndrome\"

2. Author information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Christian Rabeling
Institution: University of Hohenheim
Adress: Hohenheim, Germany
Email:

B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information
Name: Matthew Prebus
Institution: Arizona State University
Adress: Tempe, AZ USA
Email:

1. Date of data collection: 2018-2022

2. Geographic location of data collection: Clark Fork and Camp Wolfeboro, CA USA

3. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: NSF CAREER DEB-1943626

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain

2. Links to publications that cite or use the data:

Preb...