Exploitative Strategies of the Invasive Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) and Native Ant Species in a Southern Spanish Pine Forest

Carpintero, Soledad; Retana, Javier; Cerdá, Xím; Reyes-López, Joaquı́n; Reyna, Luis Arias de

doi:10.1093/ee/36.5.1100

Cited by 26 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…How are native ants able to be present in the presence of Argentine ants? The low invasibility of the scrubland could be linked to the availability of food resources: woody habitats, such as cork oak trees or pine tree forest, can provide food sources that are scarce in the scrubland, such as treeliving Hemiptera populations (Heller and Gordon 2006;Carpintero et al 2007). A more likely explanation is temperature regimes and associated environmental humidity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scavenging in Mediterranean ecosystems: effect of the invasive Argentine ant

2011

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Above-ground invertebrates may represent a high proportion of animal biomass, but few data are available on their fate after death. In Mediterranean ant communities, they are frequently scavenged by ants. Here, we assessed the consequences of Argentine ant invasion on the removal of arthropod corpses in Doñana National Park (SW Spain). In three natural habitats that differed in their degree of vegetation cover (i.e. protection for ants against high temperatures), we experimentally provided dead Drosophila, and observed their disappearance over a 60-min period at different times of day and year. The habitats used were isolated cork oak trees, pine tree forest and dry scrubland; we compared invaded with uninvaded plots in each. Oak trees were the most invaded habitat, while scrubland was the least and the only one where the Argentine ant coexisted with native ant species. In accordance with this degree of invasion, the Argentine ant removed the highest percentage of dead flies in oak trees and the lowest in scrubland. Its performance as scavenger was higher than uninvaded ant communities, but it was reduced at high temperatures, when native species were highly efficient. The saturated distribution of the Argentine ant colony seems to be the key to its efficiency. We discuss how the occurrence and scavenger efficiency of the Argentine ant could affect the nutrient cycling and the progression of its invasion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scavenging in Mediterranean ecosystems: effect of the invasive Argentine ant

2011

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“…By contrast, in the field group size can vary during the course of an agonistic encounter, owing to the process of recruitment (e.g. [20,48,[59][60][61]). Natural wood ant battles over territory or predation [59,62] are likely to involve much larger groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fight tactics in wood ants: individuals in smaller groups fight harder but die faster

Batchelor

Briffa

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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When social animals engage in inter-group contests, the outcome is determined by group sizes and individual masses, which together determine group resource-holding potential ('group RHP'). Individuals that perceive themselves as being in a group with high RHP may receive a motivational increase and increase their aggression levels. Alternatively, individuals in lower RHP groups may increase their aggression levels in an attempt to overcome the RHP deficit. We investigate how 'group RHP' influences agonistic tactics in red wood ants Formica rufa. Larger groups had higher total agonistic indices, but per capita agonistic indices were highest in the smallest groups, indicating that individuals in smaller groups fought harder. Agonistic indices were influenced by relative mean mass, focal group size, opponent group size and opponent group agonistic index. Focal group attrition rates decreased as focal group relative agonistic indices increased and there was a strong negative influence of relative mean mass. The highest focal attrition rates were received when opponent groups were numerically large and composed of large individuals. Thus, fight tactics in F. rufa seem to vary with both aspects of group RHP, group size and the individual attributes of group members, indicating that information on these are available to fighting ants.

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“…On the other hand, Bonelli's warbler is a tree crown insectivore which prefers pine forests to cork oak forests (Estrada et al 2004). Unfortunately, despite the Argentine ants being known to tend sap-feeding mealybugs and plant lice in pines (Carpintero et al 2007), we lack data on its overall effects on pine crown arthropods. Finally, the Sardinian warbler is a shrub dwelling insectivore.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with invasive alien species: the Argentine ant and the insectivorous bird assemblage of Mediterranean oak forests

2010

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Cork oak forests invaded by the Argentine ant Linepithema humile have a lower abundance and biomass of arthropod prey for birds than uninvaded forests. We studied whether the biomass of breeding insectivorous birds was also lower in invaded areas. We explored this and other possible effects of the ant invasion on the bird community by censusing birds in transects located in four invaded and four uninvaded forest sites in Catalonia (NE Spain) for 3 years. Redundancy analysis showed only slight differences in the community composition between forests. Two insectivorous species, Luscinia megarhynchos and Fringilla coelebs, tended to be less abundant in invaded areas although two others, Phylloscopus bonelli and Sylvia melanocephala, showed the opposite trend. Overall, the differences in prey biomass between invaded and uninvaded areas did not entail a biomass shift in the guild of insectivorous birds, regardless of whether they were shrub or canopy foragers. The main role of the habitat structure in determining bird densities and food resources being non-limiting in the studied forests are two possible nonexclusive explanations for this inconsistency. At today's levels, the Argentine ant invasion does not appear to have greatly determined the insectivorous bird assemblage of the forests evaluated.

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Exploitative Strategies of the Invasive Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) and Native Ant Species in a Southern Spanish Pine Forest

Cited by 26 publications

References 50 publications

Scavenging in Mediterranean ecosystems: effect of the invasive Argentine ant

Scavenging in Mediterranean ecosystems: effect of the invasive Argentine ant

Fight tactics in wood ants: individuals in smaller groups fight harder but die faster

Coping with invasive alien species: the Argentine ant and the insectivorous bird assemblage of Mediterranean oak forests

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