Insectes Sociaux 56: 143–147, Sunamura, E., Hatsumi, S., Karino, S., Nishisue, K., Terayama, M., Kitade, O., Tatsuki, S. 2009.
This not only appears paradoxical for inclusive fitness theory (Jackson, 2007; Helanterä et al., 2009), but also suggests supercolonies may be vulnerable to trait degradation – as the extensive mixing of lineages that leads to workers helping unrelated queens should hide worker phenotypes from selection – and therefore be evolutionarily short-lived (Queller & Strassmann, 1998; Linksvayer & Wade, 2009; Helanterä et al., 2009; note that this may not apply in supercolonial species with worker reproduction, for example in some Formica, Helanterä & Sundström, 2007). Typical size of worker ants found in Southern California. Evolutionary Applications 3: 136-143 (doi: Vogel, V., Pedersen, J.S., d’Ettorre, P. et al.
Torres, C.W., Brandt, M., Tsutsui, N.D. 2007. The native range of Argentine ants is limited to around major waterways in the lowland areas of the Paraná River drainage.
Instead, colonies reproduce by budding off into new units. Annales Zoologici Fennici 41: 713–727. Now imagine that ant hill extended across six continents, and you've begun to grasp the magnitude of the territory reigned over by the supercolony of Argentine ants. [27] The exoskeletons of the ants are covered with a hydrocarbon-laced secretion. 2011; Booth et al.
[12], In contrast, native populations are more genetically diverse, genetically differentiated (among colonies and across space), and form colonies that are much smaller than the supercolonies that dominate the introduced range.
Scientists studying the colony believe that at one time there were around 1.1 million queen ants and 306 million worker ants living there. Thus, when Argentine ants invade an agricultural area, the population densities of these plant parasites can increase followed by an increase in damage to crops.
Imagine the ant hill in your backyard. Scents of self: the expression component of self/non-self recognition systems.
They were first discovered in New Zealand at Mt Smart Stadium (Auckland) during opening-ceremony rehearsals for the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Invasion of four Argentine Ant supercolonies into Kobe Port, Japan: Their distributions and effects on indigenous ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).
Argentine ants have spread across a roughly 2,500 miles of Western Europe, including parts of Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal.
[20], Argentine ants sometimes tend aphid, mealybug, and scale insect colonies,[21] sometimes relocating the parasites to unaffected plants, and their protection of these plant pests from predators and parasitoids can cause problems in agricultural areas. "[10] The Very Large Colony, which covers territory from San Diego to beyond San Francisco, may have a population of nearly one trillion individuals.
In 2000, scientists discovered a supercolony of Argentine ants in Southern Europe that dwarfed the colony found in Japan.
[22] In return for this protection, the ants benefit by feeding off an excretion known as honeydew. 2010).
It’s thought that the Argentine ants arrived sometime in the 1930s, and while they don’t harm humans, they can completely disrupt the eco-system. [citation needed] There is also evidence that the presence of Argentine ant may decrease the number of pollinators that visit natural flowering plants via predation on the larvae of the pollinators.