Description
Name: Solenopsis invicta
Common name: Red imported fire ant
Description: The red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta is native to the South American countries of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. S. invicta is a highly invasive ant, which has spread throughout the US, and is spreading in parts of the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and southern China. This species is also studied because it harbors a supergene controlling colony social structure (i.e., one queen versus many queens). Moreover, the social supergene evolving in S. invicta invasive populations is associated with a greenbeard effect, where workers carrying the Sb haplotype of the supergene accept only queens carrying the same haplotype and kill others.
Demographic information: generation time in years: 6 (Cohen & Privman 2019; Ross & Shoemaker 2008)
Chromosome structure: S. invicta genome assembly is scaffolded at the chromosome level using genetic maps, optic maps and Hi-C data. RefSeq assembly accession: GCF_016802725.1. genome size: 378.1 Mb, contig N50: 9.4 Mb, 16,996 RefSeq annotated genes.
Recombination rates: Genetic map of recombination rates (csv file): Wang et al. 2013 Nature
Mutation rate: unknown
Other informations:
Sex determination: There is an unknown sex locus.
Ploidy: Haplodiploid; most males are haploids, all females (workers and queens) are diploids.
DNA for more than 150 individuals have been sequenced and are accessible on NCBI.