Workerless-inquiline
Guides
Pogonomyrmex colei
Pogonomyrmex colei is a workerless inquiline ant species in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It is a permanent social parasite that lacks a worker caste entirely, with only reproductive queens and males present. The species is native to the southwestern United States, where it parasitizes nests of the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex rugosus. Its genome has been sequenced to study the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolutionary loss of the worker caste.