ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — One of the most common house ant species might have been built for living in some of the smallest spaces in a forest, but the ants have found ways to take advantage of the comforts of city living.
Grzegorz Buczkowski discovered odorous house ants living in supercolonies, creating complex networks entomologists have never seen with the species before now. (Credit: Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
"This is a native species that's doing this," said Buczkowski, whose results are published in the early online version of the journalBiological Invasions. "Native ants are not supposed to become invasive. We don't know of any other native ants that are outcompeting other species of native ants like these."
Odorous house ants live in hollow acorn shells in the forest. They're called odorous because they have a coconut- or rum-like smell when crushed. They're considered one of the most common house ants.
In semi-natural areas that are a cross of forest and urban areas, such as a park, Buczkowski said he observed colonies of about 500 workers with a single queen. He said it's possible that as the ants get closer to urban areas they have easier access to food, shelter and other resources.
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Extreme life history plasticity and the evolution of invasive characteristics in a native ant
Journal Biological InvasionsPublisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 1387-3547 (Print) 1573-1464 (Online)
Category Original Paper
DOI 10.1007/s10530-010-9727-6
Subject Collection Biomedical and Life Sciences
SpringerLink Date Thursday, February 25, 2010
(1) Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Received: 9 November 2009 Accepted: 15 February 2010 Published online: 26 February 2010
Abstract
Disturbance resulting from urbanization is a leading cause of biotic homogenization worldwide. Native species are replaced with widespread non-native species and ants are among the world’s most notorious invaders. To date, all documented cases of ant invasions involve exotic introduced species that are spread around the world by human-mediated dispersal. I investigated the effect of urbanization on the evolution of invasive characteristics in a native ant species, the odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile (Say). Colony social structure, life history traits, and the spatial pattern of nest distribution were compared by sampling T. sessile across a gradient of three distinct habitats: natural, semi-natural, and urban. Results demonstrate a remarkable transition in colony social and spatial structure and life history traits between natural and urban environments. In natural habitats, T. sessile colonies are comprised of small, monogyne (single queen), and monodomous (single nest) colonies. In urban areas, T. sessile often exhibit extreme polygyny and polydomy, form large supercolonies, and become a dominant pest. Results also suggest that urban T. sessile colonies may have a negative impact on native ant abundance and diversity. In the natural environment T. sessile coexisted with a wide array of other ant species, while very few ant species were present in the urban environment invaded by T. sessile. Habitat degradation and urbanization can lead to extreme changes in social and spatial colony structure and life history traits in a native ant species and can promote the evolution of invasive characteristics such as polygyny, polydomy, and supercolonial colony structure.
Keywords Biodiversity - Biotic homogenization - Invasive ants - Odorous house ant - Polydomy - Polygyny - Supercolony - Tapinoma sessile - Urbanization
Grzegorz Buczkowski
Email: gbuczkow@purdue.edu
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