Contribution of Cytogenetics to the Debate on the Paraphyly of Pachycondyla spp. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Ponerinae)

Figure 6

Possible pathways of karyotype evolution in several groups of Neotropical Pachycondyla sensu Brown. The Roman numbers correspond to the more representative species groups studied here (nomenclature according the last column of Table 1): I: Neoponera-crenata; II: Pseudoponera; III: Neoponera-foetida; IV: Neoponera-apicalis; V: Neoponera-verenae; VI: Pachycondyla sensu stricto. This schematic representation follows the suggested model of Imai and Crozier [27] for karyotypical evolution in mammals and is based on a hypothesis of a karyotype variation essentially driven by fission.