Also unlike many ant species unrelated foundresses in laboratory tests have lived peacefully for five years. This experiment was designed to determine whether polygyny in the ant A. versicolor exists in nature and in the later stages of a colony's life. The sequenced worker mtDNA was compared to other worker mtDNA from the same colony. I used mtDNA because it is passed directly from mother to offspring so the father's DNA does not affect it. Differences found in mtDNA haplotypes conclusively prove that, at least, the first natural colony examined has more than one unrelated queen producing workers, which contradicts the kin selection theory.
Cooperative colony founding in many social insects is explained by the kin selection theory.