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Background  The ants of the  Formica  genus are classical model species in evolutionary biology. In particular, Darwin used Formica as model species to better understand the evolution of slave-making, a parasitic behaviour where workers of another species are stolen to exploit their workforce. In his book “On the Origin of Species” (1859), Darwin first hypothesized that slave-making behaviour in  Formica  evolved in incremental steps from a free-living ancestor.    Methods  The absence of a well-resolved phylogenetic tree of the genus prevent an assessment of whether relationships among  Formica  subgenera are compatible with this scenario. In this study, we resolve the relationships among the 4 palearctic Formica subgenera ( Formica str. s. ,  Coptoformica ,  Raptiformica  and  Serviformica ) using a phylogenomic dataset of 945 genes for 16 species.    Results  We provide a reference tree resolving the relationships among the main  Formica  subgenera with high bootstrap supports.    Discussion  The branching order of our tree suggests that the free-living lifestyle is ancestral in the  Formica  genus and that parasitic colony founding could have evolved a single time, probably acting as a pre-adaptation to slave-making behaviour.    Conclusion  This phylogenetic tree provides a solid backbone for future evolutionary studies in the  Formica  genus and slave-making behaviour.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-018-1159-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

bmc evolutionary biology

Phylogenomics of palearctic Formica species suggests a single origin of temporary parasitism and gives insights to the evolutionary pathway toward slave-making behaviour