ABSTRACT
The evolutionary pathways from independent to socially parasitic life in ants have been discussed by various myrmecologists. Among the social parasites, two or even three evolutionary lines through slavery, temporary parasitism, and xenobiosis are supposed to end up in permanent parasitism or inquilinism, following the schema depicted by E. O. Wilson. The parasitic queen eliminates the host queen by throttling her to death. She is accepted by the host colony workers. About a dozen of Epimyrma species have been described mainly from southern Europe, and from North Africa. Apparently the original type of social parasitism in Epimyrma is dulosis in the way which is characteristic of E. ravouxi and probably E. stumperi. K. Gosswald, Wilson, and others put forth the hypothesis that in the genus Epimyrma a degeneration of the worker caste occurred, beginning with the numerous but functionless workers of E. goesswaldi, and ending with E. ravouxi, a workerless inquiline which coexists with the host colony queens.
