Research on hybridization between species provides unparalleled insights into the pre- and post-zygotic isolating mechanisms that drive speciation. In social organisms, colony-level incompatibilities may provide additional reproductive barriers not present in solitary species, and hybrid zones offer an opportunity to identify these barriers. Here, we use genotyping-by-sequencing to sequence hundreds of markers in a hybrid zone between two socially polymorphic ant species, Formica selysi and Formica cinerea. We characterize the zone, determine the frequency of hybrid workers, infer whether hybrid queens or males are produced, and investigate whether hybridization is influenced by colony social organization. We also compare cuticular hydrocarbon profiles and aggression levels between the two species. The hybrid zone exhibits a mosaic structure. The asymmetric distribution of hybrids skewed toward F. cinerea suggests a pattern of unidirectional nuclear gene flow from F. selysi into F. cinerea. The occurrence of backcrossed individuals indicates that hybrid queens and/or males are fertile, and the presence of the F. cinerea mitochondrial haplotype in 97% of hybrids shows that successful F1 hybrids will generally have F. cinerea mothers and F. selysi fathers. We found no evidence that social organization contributes to speciation, since hybrids occur in both single-queen and multiple-queen colonies. Strongly differentiated cuticular hydrocarbon profiles and heightened interspecific aggression further reveal that species recognition cues are both present and perceived. The discovery of fertile hybrids and asymmetrical gene flow is unusual in ants, and this hybrid zone will therefore provide an ideal system with which to investigate speciation in social insects.
CHCGraphSZ
This file contains the graphical output of the GCMS runs for our 10 samples. The two samples from Aigle plus BRA1 and BRA2 are Formica cinerea (or F. cinerea-like hybrids), while BRA24 plus all samples from RID and FIN are Formica selysi (or F. selysi-like hybrids).
1-BRA1
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica cinerea colony BRA1. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
BRA2
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica cinerea colony BRA2. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
5-RID33
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony RID33. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
7-FIN49
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony FIN49. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
9-RID59
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony RID59. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
8-FIN480
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony FIN480. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
6-RID53
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony RID53. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
3-AIGLEa
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica cinerea colony Aigle a. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
2-BRA24
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica selysi colony BRA24. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
4-AIGLEb
This is the raw GCMS data for Formica cinerea colony Aigle b. The file is in .RAW format, which is compatible with Thermo Xcalibur, Micromass MassLynx, and Perkin Elmer TurboMass.
Aggression_Trials
File contains data on pairwise aggression trials. Columns include: Locality_W1 & Locality_W2 (collection localities of the two workers used in the trial), Origin_W1 & Origin W2 (species used in the trial), Score: aggression score 1-4, Aggressor_ID: for aggression scores of 3 or 4, we documented whether the initial aggressor was selysi, cinerea, or whether they were both aggressive at the same time.