Social and Population Structure in the Ant Cataglyphis emmae Jowers, Michael Joséph Leniaud, Laurianne Cerdá, Xim Alasaad, Samer Caut, Stephane Amor, Fernando Aron, Sege Boulay, Raphaël Bayes theorem Gene flow Habitats Haplotypes Mitochondrial DNA Polymerase chain reaction Population genetics Variant genotypes Dispersal has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population genetics and species distribution. Social Hymenoptera show two contrasting colony reproductive strategies, dependent and independent colony foundation modes, and these are often associated to the population structures derived from inter and intra-population gene flow processes conditioned by alternative dispersal strategies. Here we employ microsatellite and mitochondrial markers to investigate the population and social genetic structure and dispersal patterns in the ant Cataglyphis emmae at both, local and regional scales. We find that C. emmae is monogynous and polyandrous. Lack of detection of any population viscosity and population structure with nuclear markers at the local scale suggests efficient dispersal, in agreement with a lack of inbreeding. Contrasting demographic differences before and during the mating seasons suggest that C. emmae workers raise sexuals in peripheric nest chambers to reduce intracolonial conflicts. The high genetic differentiation recovered from the mtDNA haplotypes, together with the significant correlation of such to geographic distance, and presence of new nuclear alleles between areas (valleys) suggest long-term historical isolation between these regions, indicative of limited dispersal at the regional scale. Our findings on the ecological, social and population structure of this species increases our understanding of the patterns and processes involved under independent colony foundation. 2014-03-26T13:48:12Z 2014-03-26T13:48:12Z 2013 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Jowers, M.J.; et al. Social and Population Structure in the Ant Cataglyphis emmae. Plos One, 8(9): e72941 (2013). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31136] 1932-6203 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072941 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31136 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Public Library of Science (PLOS)