So after AntsCanada's latest video on harvester ants was published, I became curious about Mikey's explanation of the Pogonomyrmex rugosus / Pogonomyrmex barbatus hybridization. Something didn't sound right to me. I know he consulted with some myrmecologists about it, but I think there may have been a misunderstanding.
According to Mikey, Pogonomyrmex rugosus can't produce workers unless they mate with an alate of Pogonomyrmex barbatus. I don't see how this could be possible considering all the places here in California where P. rugosus are found, P. barbatus don't exist.
Alex Wild gave a little explanation of it in the caption of one of his pictures, and it reads like this:
One of the strangest recorded ant phenomena is a hybrid zone between two species of harvester ants in the western United States. Pogonomyrmex rugosus and Pogonomyrmex barbatus apparently hybridized in the ancient past, leading to a pair of genetically complex daughter lineages that continually need to cross with each other in order to make worker ants. The queens and males remain genetically separate. Young queens need to mate with their own species to produce more queens and males, and with the other species to produce workers. This image shows a hybrid worker leaving the nest. Portal, Arizona, USA
Where Alex Wild says "Young queens need to mate with their own species to produce more queens and males, and with the other species to produce workers." I assume he is referring to the "genetically complex daughter lineages", which would be the hybrids. Right? If so, then Mikey's explanation was correct until he referred to the two hybrid species as P. rugosus and P. barbatus.
There is a study here that I guess explains all of it in great detail, but without a formal education in biology, it might be a bit hard to understand. I know I can hardly understand it myself.
Maybe we can get one of our resident experts to better explain this for us. 
