Wolbachia is one of the most common endosymbionts best known to induce several reproductive alterations in its insect hosts. In some cases, the insect hosts harbor more than two strains of the bacterium. The Vollenhovia emeryi ant lives in dead trees and is morphologically subdivided into the long-winged and the short-winged. Interestingly the short-winged morph is free of Wolbachia, but only the long-winged morph is multiple- infected with the Wolbachia bacterium. We sampled four populations of the long-winged morph in Korea and performed pyrosequencing in Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST), to determine the bacterial strain diversity. Six different gene regions (coxA, fbpA, ftsZ, gatB, hcpA and wsp gene) were targeted and amplified. However, the result shows that diversity of haplotypes is very high. The pyrosequencing approach in MLST, a new method of discriminating Wolbachia strains, is promising to effectively detect multiple infections and rare haplotypes.

Vollenhovia emeryi ant is distinguished by its wing morphology; short winged (SW) and long winged (LW). Its reproduction shows a bizarre genetic caste system distinct from other social hymenopteran insects. Unfertilized eggs undergo genome duplication and develop into clonal gynes. Fertilized eggs develop either into workers or males. The fate of the fertilized eggs is determined whether maternal genome loss (MGL) takes place after fertilization. Eggs with MGL become haploid males with only paternal half of the genome. Without MGL, the eggs become workers with maternal and paternal half of the genome. In this research, we analysed 5 nuclear genes of SW and LW individual ants. Among them, two genes from an SW male are identical to those of LW, and one gene from the SW male seems a variant of LW. The result indicates that SW males are derived from LW colonies. From the genetic relatedness point of view individuals in the same castes are genetically identical. On the other hand, between workers and two reproductives, the relatedness is asymmetrical and there is even no gene sharing between gynes and males. The conventional genetic relatedness by Hamilton is revised under this condition.

Vollenhovia emeryi chosenica (Wheeler) (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae) is an ant species frequently found in forests. In nature, two phenotypically distinct forms are found e.g. long winged and short winged. Unlike other hymenopteran insects, the ant is unique in its mode of reproduction. In this species, queens are clonally reproduced from unfertilized eggs. On the other hand, workers develop from fertilized eggs. Strikingly, haploid males are reproduced from fertilized eggs after destroying the maternal half of the genome e.g. maternal genome loss (MGL) consequently only with the paternal half of the genome. We collected the ant colonies nationwide in 2011. In this study, we demonstrate that the ant is infected with Wolbachia, the bacterial reproductive manipulator in various insects. Interestingly, only the long winged morphs seem to be infected. Furthermore, most colonies are mulitple-infected except two colonies collected from Chuncheon and Mt. Deogyu. We will discuss potential interactions among the Wolbachia infection polymorphism and wing morphology, and evolution of clonal reproduction and MGL.