Leptothorax  acervorum (细胸蚁属一种蚂蚁)ants live all over the Northern hemisphere, but their reproductive strategy depends on habitat. Colonies are polygynous（一夫多妻的） (more than one queen) in the forest of Siberia and central Europe, but functionally monogynous (only one queen reproduces) on sun-exposed slopes in Alaska, Hokkaido and the mountains of central Spain. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology demonstrates that when a colony is functionally monogynous not only do queen ants fight by antennal（触角的） boxing to become the reproductive queen, but that worker ants reinforce queen behaviour by feeding dominant females and expelling, or killing, their weaker sisters.

          Researchers from University of Regensburg studied the behaviour of L. acervorum in Spain. In these colonies only a single queen was able to reproduce. All the other queens either did not yet have active ovaries, or their ovaries had reverted to an inactive state. The ants were observed fighting, both queen to queen, and worker ants to queens. However the inter-queen fighting involved ritualistic（仪式的） antennal boxing and mandible threats, while the workers were more vicious, and also pulled and bit low ranking queens.

          The top queen was decided by the infighting（混战） between the queens. However queen reproductive status was not predicted by worker ants' violence but rather was reinforced by the workers feeding and grooming the more dominant queens.