A Review of the Tawny Crazy Ant, Nylanderia fulva, an Emergent Ant Invader in the Southern United States: Is Biological Control a Feasible Management Option?

Abstract

The tawny crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), has invaded states of the U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Native to South America, N. fulva is considered a pest in the U.S. capable of annoying homeowners and farmers, as well as displacing native ant species. As it continues to expand its range, there is a growing need to develop novel management techniques to control the pest and prevent further spread. Current management efforts rely heavily on chemical control, but these methods have not been successful. A review of the biology, taxonomy, ecology, and distribution of N. fulva, including discussion of ecological and economic consequences of this invasive species, is presented. Options for future management are suggested focusing on biological control, including parasitoid flies in the genus Pseudacteon, the microsporidian parasite Myrmecomorba nylanderiae, and a novel polynucleotide virus as potential biological control agents. We suggest further investigation of natural enemies present in the adventive range, as well as foreign exploration undertaken in the native range including Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. We conclude that N. fulva may be a suitable candidate for biological control.

Do polygyne ants cooperate? : Colony boundaries and larval discrimination in multiple-queen colonies of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta)

“…Precision was 0.1 To verify that our isotope tracer methods could detect resource sharing over 30-m distances, we conducted a proof of concept experiment using a population of tawny crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva ) near College Station, Texas. This species forms a single supercolony throughout its invaded range in North America, in which workers regularly share collected resources with each other and occupy transitory nests (Eyer et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2016). Our results from this experiment confirmed that the isotope tracer is highly successful at detecting sharing in unicolonial populations at distances that were relevant for our study (i.e., up to 28.4m from the treated area; Kjeldgaard et al,unpublished data ).…”

Supercolonial structure of invasive populations of the tawny crazy ant Nylanderia fulva in the US

“…Field observations in the U.S.A. introduced range revealed that populations consist of dense networks of polygynous nests (0 to 5 reproductive queens, [43]), with ants freely moving among them without any aggression between non-nestmates [44, 45]. No nuptial flights have been observed in the invasive range, suggesting that the invasion front advances by nest fission (or budding), where queens establish new nests with the help of workers within walking distance of the natal nest [41, 46]. However, these studies only used field observations with limited behavioral tests; genetic studies are lacking to clearly determine the population genetics, colony structure and aggression patterns of the tawny crazy ant within its introduced range, and no information is available from the species’ native range.…”

Revisiting the ideas of trees as templates and the competition paradigm in pairwise analyses of ground-dwelling ant species occurrences in a tropical forest

“…Pachycondyla harpax usually nests underground in the vicinity of trees (Grüter et al, 2018), and although workers forage primarily on the ground, they can also be found on trees (Rocha et al, 2015). However, if P. harpax attends EFNs on I. edulis and P. gonoachanta trees needs to (Wang et al, 2016). Among the few pairs that were segregated in distribution by environmental filters, the pair of Solenopsis species can also be explained by the divergence in the probabilities of occurrence under the canopies of the different trees.…”