Argentine ant

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Argentine ant
Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), museum specimen

Argentine ant ( Linepithema humile ), museum specimen

Systematics
Family : Ants (Formicidae)
Subfamily : Glandular Ants (Dolichoderinae)
Genre : Line theme
Type : Argentine ant
Scientific name
Line issue humile
Mayr , 1866

The Argentine ant ( Linepithema humile ) is a species of the gland ant (Dolichoderinae). It originally comes from South America, but it was unintentionally brought to new areas by humans and is now an invasive neozoon that is widespread almost worldwide .

features

The Argentine ant is light brown. Workers are 2.1–3 mm long, queens reach a length of 4.5–4.9 mm.

While the genus Linepithema is clearly recognizable, the members of the genus are difficult to distinguish from one another. Other linepitheme species are very often confused with the Argentine ant. In Central Europe, workers can be distinguished from other gland ants by a number of characteristic features. The propodeum clearly towers above the mesonotum . The dentition of the mandibles is very irregular: there are a total of 5–6 larger teeth distributed over the masticatory margin and 11–15 significantly smaller teeth in the spaces between them. The lower jaw probes are 6-unit, the labial probes are 4-unit.

distribution

The original range of the Argentine ant was limited to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay , where it occurs near the Río Paraná . Today the Argentine ant is an almost worldwide widespread neozoon that was inadvertently carried off with the transport of goods, for example by ships and airplanes. At present (2011) it has expanded its distribution to a total of 21 countries on several continents. In 1895 it was brought to southern Europe for the first time and spread from large coastal cities, especially in anthropogenic habitats. However, since the species is not frost-hardy, its range in Central Europe has so far been limited to warm houses - there are no permanent outdoor occurrences. This species has so far mostly been slowed down by climatic restrictions, so global warming could favor the spread of this invasive species. Local, competitive ant species also slow down the spread of the Argentine ant.

ecology

Argentine ants are feeding on a fly. Coto de Doñana , Spain.

The habitat of the Argentine ant in its original home is tropical and subtropical forest. Their preferred habitats in Europe are agricultural areas, gardens and various other human-influenced habitats. However, it also invades undisturbed habitats, including oak and pine forests in the Mediterranean. She prefers areas with moderate temperature and humidity. Argentine ants are omnivores and ingest honeydew , nectar, insects and carrion.

Colony structure

In their homeland, colonies of the Argentine ant are monogynous (one queen per colony), and the colonies fight each other. Where it was introduced, however, the Argentine ant forms so-called super colonies from several nests (polydom) with several queens (polygyn) each. These colonies can extend over huge areas: the largest stretched according to the status of 2007 over a length of 6000 km from Galicia to Italy . The reason is the so-called founder effect : Usually only very few individuals are abducted and therefore only little genetic diversity. This also affects genes that are involved in the production of so-called cuticular hydrocarbons. Using this chemical signature, ants recognize members of their own colony and can distinguish them from other colonies. Since, however, initially only a few individuals form an entire population, the entire population has similar aptitudes for recognizing colony members - they are no longer aggressive towards one another. The individual buildings are in constant contact with one another and act together.

Hatching queens are mated directly in the nest. They then produce eggs for their lifespan of 0.9 years on average. In the absence of queens, workers can lay unfertilized eggs from which males will hatch. The super-colonies spread by creating new nests in the vicinity of old nests and expand by up to 150 m annually.

As a neozoa

The Argentine ant is listed as one of the 100 worst neobiota in the world by the IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group . Even if it mostly settles in spaces shaped by humans, it can also penetrate natural habitats. There it often appears as a superior competitor to native ants, as their super colonies prevent them from fighting each other and optimizing their foraging. They often find food more quickly than other ants and sometimes show aggressive behavior towards native ant species. Because of the enormously high population densities that they can reach as supercolonies, they also cause considerable damage to ecosystems as a whole - for example, by reducing native ants, they disrupt mutualistic relationships between native ants and plants. Through intensive hunting, they can greatly reduce stocks of native arthropods , some of which are important pollinators of plants. This also causes indirect damage to flowering plants. Finally, agriculture can also be damaged, as Argentine ants, like many other ants, tend aphids to get at honeydew . The large number of Argentine ants can cause aphids to explode, which then damage crops.

Because of these problems, several attempts have been made to exterminate the Argentine ant locally, mostly without success. Various preventive measures against introduction as well as insecticides are used. In California, for example, populations of the Argentine ant have been reduced locally by up to 90% by using poisoned bait.

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine have developed a method to use the smell of the Argentine ant against them. The individual hydrocarbon profile of the exoskeleton of ants plays an important role in recognizing other nest members. The scientists developed a substance that is merely similar to the natural one. When applied to an individual, this substance leads to the fact that nest members attack and kill them. This chemical control method, in combination with other applications, could provide effective control.

Another approach to large-scale control of the Argentine ant has been suggested by scientists from Japan. They demonstrated that it is possible to use a synthetic pheromone to affect the Argentine ant's path-finding behavior . This was later confirmed by further experiments by a New Zealand research group in Hawaii and by scientists from Victoria University of Wellington , who showed that this practice also had positive effects on other local ant species.

Movie

  • War of the ants. Television documentary, Germany, 2012, 52 min., Script and director: Stefan Geier, production: arte , Bayerischer Rundfunk , first broadcast: September 6, 2012 on arte, summary by arte.
    Documentary about the largest super colony of Argentine ants along the southern European Mediterranean coast. The film shows the strategies the Argentine ants use to combat native species and accompanies scientists who want to stop their spread.
  • The ants megacolony and the greatest war on earth . Internet documentation, Germany, 2020, 9 min., Production: Things explained - in short , funk, publication: February 26, 2020 on Youtube.

Web links

Commons : Linepithema humile  - collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e Linepithema humile on europe-aliens.org; Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  2. ↑ AL Wild: Taxonomy and Distribution of the Argentine Ant, Linepithema humile (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). In: Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 97 (6), 2004, pp. 1204-1215.
  3. ↑ a b AL Wild: Taxonomic Revision of the Ant Genus Linepithema (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). UC Publications in Entomology, University of California Press 2007.
  4. ↑ a b c d e B. Seifert: The ants of Central and Northern Europe. Lutra, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1 .
  5. ↑ a b c Linepithema humile in the Invasive Species Database; Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  6. ^ A b N. Roura-Pascual, C. Hui, T. Ikeda, G. Leday, DM Richardson, S. Carpintero, X. Espadaler, C. Gómez, B. Guénard, S. Hartley, P. Krushelnycky, PJ Lester , MA McGeoch, SB Menke, JS Pedersen, JPW Pitt, J. Reyes, NJ Sanders, AV Suarez, Y. Touyama, D. Ward, PS Ward, SP Worner: Relative roles of climatic suitability and anthropogenic influence in determining the pattern of spread in a global invader. In: PNAS. 108 (1), 2011, pp. 220-225.
  7. ↑ N. Roura-Pascual, AV Suarez, C. Gómez, P. Pons, Y. Touyama, AL Wild, AT Peterson: Geographical potential of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile Mayr) in the face of global climate change. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B 271, 2004, pp. 2527-2535.
  8. ↑ ND Tsutsui, TJ Case: Population Genetics and Colony Structure of the Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) in its Native and Introduced Ranges. In: evolution. 55 (5), 2001, pp. 976-985.
  9. ^ NE Heller: Colony structure in introduced and native populations of the invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. In: Insectes Sociaux. Volume 51, No. 4, 2004, pp. 378-386, doi: 10.1007 / s00040-004-0770-0 .
  10. ^ Ants' own chemical may control them
  11. ↑ Roy Rivenburg: UCI makes ants go ape by giving them BO In: Los Angeles Times . September 15, 2006, accessed March 2, 2017 .
  12. ↑ US patent .
  13. ↑ David M Suckling, RW Peck, LM Manning, LD Stringer, J. Cappadonna, AM El-Sayed: Disruption of Foraging by a Dominant Invasive Species to Decrease Its Competitive Ability . In: Journal of Chemical Ecology . tape 34 , no. 12 , 2008, p. 1602-1609 , doi : 10.1007 / s10886-008-9566-4 , PMID 19034574 .
  14. ^ Fabian L. Westermann, David M. Suckling, Philip J. Lester: Disruption of Foraging by a Dominant Invasive Species to Decrease Its Competitive Ability . In: PLOS ONE . tape 9 , no. 3 , 2014, p. e90173 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0090173 , PMID 24594633 ( plosone.org [PDF]).