Diacamma is a genus of queenless ants belonging to the subfamily Ponerinae. It is distributed from India to Australia and contains about 24 species.
Biology A queen caste does not exist in Diacamma. Unique to this genus, all workers emerge from cocoons with a pair of tiny innervated thoracic appendages (gemmae) that are homologous with wings. Mutilation leads to a permanent change in lifetime trajectory, because workers lacking gemmae never mate. This is unlike other queenless ants where workers establish a dominance hierarchy to regulate reproduction. In Diacamma only one worker retains her gemmae in each colony, she is the gamergate (mated egglaying worker), and she bites off the gemmae of newly emerged workers. Mutilation causes the degeneration of the neuronal connections between the sensory hairs on the gemma's surface and the central nervous system, and this may explain the irreversibility of modifications in individual behaviour.
Species
Diacamma assamense Emery, 1897 Diacamma australe (Fabricius, 1775) Diacamma baguiense Wheeler & Chapman, 1925 Diacamma bispinosum (Le Guillou, 1842) Diacamma ceylonense Emery, 1897 Diacamma colosseense Forel, 1915 Diacamma cupreum (Smith, 1860) Diacamma cyaneiventre André, 1887 Diacamma holosericeum (Roger, 1860) Diacamma indicum Santschi, 1920 Diacamma intricatum (Smith, 1857) Diacamma jacobsoni Forel, 1912 Diacamma leve Crawley, 1915 Diacamma longitudinale Emery, 1889 Diacamma palawanicum Emery, 1900 Diacamma pallidum (Smith, 1858) Diacamma panayense Wheeler & Chapman, 1925 Diacamma purpureum (Smith, 1863) Diacamma rugivertex Emery, 1902 Diacamma rugosum (Le Guillou, 1842) Diacamma scalpratum (Smith, 1858) Diacamma schoedli Shattuck & Barnett, 2006 Diacamma sericeiventre Stitz, 1925 Diacamma solitaria (Smith, 1860) Diacamma unicolor (Smith, 1860)
References
External links
Diacamma photo gallery by Alexander Wild