ONE gene determines whether a queen fire ant rules her nest or shares her
throne.
Fire ants form two types of communities. In one type, a large queen lays eggs
quickly and sets up a colony on her own, while in the other, smaller queen ants
reproduce gradually and establish colonies with others. Now Kenneth Ross, of the
University of Georgia, has found that a single gene makes the difference (
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 95, p 14 232).
