Resource Partitioning Among Colonies of Polygyne Red Imported Fire Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Weeks, Ronald D.; Wilson, L. T.; Vinson, S. Bradleigh

doi:10.1603/0046-225x-33.6.1602

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…A1). A minimum distance of 20 m between individual plots facilitated independent observations since most ant species in the region forage no further than 5 m from their nests (Eguchi et al ) and S. invicta forage within 4 m of their nests (Weeks et al ). Given the homogeneity of the landscape we assumed that any community differences observed between uninvaded and invaded plots would primarily be a consequence of invasion by S. invicta ; environmental data collected at fine spatial resolutions were used to test this assumption.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cryptic impacts of invasion: functional homogenization of tropical ant communities by invasive fire ants

Wong

Guénard²,

Lewis

2020

Oikos

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The diversity and distribution of traits in an ecological community shapes its responses to change and the ecosystem processes it modulates. This ‘functional diversity’, however, is not necessarily a direct outcome of taxonomic diversity. Invasions by exotic insects occur in ecosystems worldwide, but there is limited understanding of how they impact functional diversity. We present the first comprehensive trait‐based investigation of the impacts of an ant invasion, and the first incorporating intraspecific polymorphisms in species‐level functional diversity. The fire ant Solenopsis invicta is an invasive species with a global distribution. Focusing on invaded and uninvaded plots in tropical grasslands of Hong Kong, we investigated how the presence of S. invicta affects the diversity and distribution of ant species and traits within and across communities, the functional identities of communities, and functionally unique species. Using trait probability density functions, we built trait spaces for 29 different species, and scaled up these components to calculate functional diversity at community and landscape levels. We found that invasion had limited effects on species and functional richness but pronounced effects on functional composition. Specifically, invaded communities had fewer functionally‐unique individuals, and were characterized by species with narrower heads and bodies and shorter mandibles. Moreover, invaded communities showed substantially higher levels of functional redundancy (+56%) due to a clustering of trait values. Consequently, across the landscape, invaded communities displayed 23% less functional turnover than uninvaded communities despite showing comparable levels of taxonomic turnover – a result confirming theoretical predictions of the effects of high local functional redundancy. In sum, the presence of S. invicta alters the functional properties of multiple local communities selectively, resulting in functional homogenization across the landscape. The disparities between taxonomic and functional impacts of invasion highlight the need to consider how trait diversity across ecological scales shapes biodiversity and its responses to change.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cryptic impacts of invasion: functional homogenization of tropical ant communities by invasive fire ants

Wong

Guénard²,

Lewis

2020

Oikos

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“…Foraging distances may be affected by the colony density of a competing species or by conspecifics (Kugler 1984;Gordon 1995;Elmes et al 1998;Weeks et al 2004). Thus the differences between foraging distance for the ants from the invaded and non-invaded grasslands could be the result of differences in ant colony density.…”

Section: Foraging Distancementioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive alien plants affect grassland ant communities, colony size and foraging behaviour

et al. 2013

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Ants are dominant members of many terrestrial ecosystems and are regarded as indicators of environmental changes. However, little is known about the effects of invasive alien plants on ant populations, particularly as regards the density, spatial distribution and size of ant colonies, as well as their foraging behaviour. We addressed these questions in a study of grassland ant communities on five grasslands invaded by alien goldenrods (Solidago sp.) and on five non-invaded grasslands without this plant. In each grassland, seven 100 m 2 plots were selected and the ant colonies counted. Ant species richness and colony density was lower in the plots on the invaded grasslands. Moreover, both of these traits were higher in the plots near the grassland edge and with a higher number of plant species in the grasslands invaded by goldenrods but not in the non-invaded ones. On average, ant colony size was lower on the invaded grasslands than the non-invaded ones. Also, ant workers travelled for longer distances to collect food items in the invaded areas than they did in the non-invaded ones, even after the experimental removal of some ant colonies in order to exclude the effect of higher colony density in the latter. Our results indicate that invasive alien goldenrods have a profound negative effect on grassland ant communities which may lead to a cascade effect on the whole grassland ecosystem through modification of the interactions among species. The invasion diminishes a major index of the fitness of ants, which is a colony's size, and probably leads to increased foraging effort of workers. This, in turn, may have important consequences for the division of labour and reproductive strategies within ant colonies.

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“…Using soil particles has been previously reported to be associated with foraging in S. invicta (Barber et al ., ; Hölldobler & Wilson, ; Weeks et al ., ; Xu et al ., ; Wang & Henderson, ; Wen et al ., ). The function of particle transport might vary with foraging conditions and food types.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do groups of red imported fire ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) feed on a droplet of sugar water?

et al. 2017

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Many previous studies have focused on the foraging behaviors and strategies of the red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren on solid food or granular bait; little attention has been paid to how liquid sugar is fed upon. In the present study, behavioral responses of S. invicta to 25% sucrose water droplets were observed. Five foraging patterns were identified in S. invicta colonies under laboratory conditions: (i) no feeding, no sucrose water feeding was observed; (ii) surround feeding, ants surrounded and fed along the edge of the sucrose droplet; (iii) stacked feeding, ants stacked and fed along the edge of the sucrose droplet; (iv) droplet-break feeding, ants broke the liquid droplet and sucked sucrose water that spread on surface of the substance or soil particles previously transported by ants; and (v) cover feeding, whole surface of the sucrose droplet was covered by layers of feeding ants. This is the first time cover feeding in S. invicta has been reported, which obviously requires more ants compared to the other patterns. In addition, individual ants were tracked in videos under laboratory conditions, and behavioral repertoires that led to stacking, covering and droplet-breaking were identified and described. The field investigation showed that surround feeding was most frequently performed by S. invicta foragers; however, cover feeding was not observed under field conditions during this study. Both laboratory and field studies showed colony-level variations in sugar-water feeding.

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Resource Partitioning Among Colonies of Polygyne Red Imported Fire Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Cited by 18 publications

References 29 publications

The cryptic impacts of invasion: functional homogenization of tropical ant communities by invasive fire ants

The cryptic impacts of invasion: functional homogenization of tropical ant communities by invasive fire ants

Invasive alien plants affect grassland ant communities, colony size and foraging behaviour

How do groups of red imported fire ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) feed on a droplet of sugar water?

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