MOLECULAR-CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF 18-S RDNA GENE FRAGMENTS FROM 6 DIFFERENT ANT SPECIES

The evolutionary relationship between socially parasitic ants and thei r hosts is still an unsolved problem. We have compared a 1.2 kb sequen ce of the 18 S ribosomal RNA genes of the parasitic ants Doronomyrmex kutteri, Harpagoxenus sublaevis and Chalepoxenus muellerianus to the s equence of the host species Leptothorax acervorum and L. recedens (all subfamily Myrmicinae, tribe Leptothoracini) and to an out-group ant C amponotus ligniperda (Formicinae). We found that parasitic species and the host species and also Camponotus ligniperda differ at less than 1 % of the base positions of the 1.2 kb segment of the 18 S rRNA gene. T he sequences showed 80.3% identity to the 18 S ribosomal RNA genes of the beetle Tenebrio molitor and only 66.5% to that of the dipteran Dro sophila melanogaster.