The Argentine Ant Supercolony

A detailed Summary of The Argentine Ant Supercolony

No single insect has had a larger influence on the development of mankind than the lowly ant. It has been storied throughout world literature, and even in the greatest of books, the Bible. Proverbs 6:6 states "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise." It is said that rose by any other name is still a rose; however, the story is not the same with the ant. One particular species, the Argentine ant, or Iridomyrmex humilis or Linepithema humile, has been revered for its tenacity, especially in defense of the nest. It is even set apart in literature, in Linengen Versus the Ants. This particular species is known mainly for its proliferation and aggressive behavior. These ants often fight to the death when they encounter another colony and totally drive out other ant species as they proliferate. It seems they are made for this barbaric behavior, as they have large mandibles and a chemical weapon called iridomyr-mecin, which kills enemies or at the very least forces them to retreat. They also have as many as eight queens per thousand workers, which makes them nearly impossible to eradicate, as they reproduce at an astounding rate. "If all of the buildings in the world disappeared, just leaving the (Argen

The leading theory for this was what scientists refer to as a genetic bottleneck; put simply, that the supercolony descended from a few individuals thereby making all the ants genetically similar enough to override their natural aggressive tendencies, which seemed very logical. However, Keller's team proved the opposite by collecting individuals from thirty-three different nest sites along the Mediterranean coast and taking DNA samples. The samples proved this theory totally incorrect as the ants were unrelated, coming from six to thirteen unrelated queens when the ants invaded Europe from South American ships. There was a genetic bottleneck, but it was not severe enough to cause this phenomenon. This genetic testing also disproved another theory that the ants were not of the same species as the Argentine ants. The other main theory was that the ants lost their aggressive tendencies or that they were somehow nullified by the European environment, which Keller's group also disproved. "Aggression was always severe between workers from the two supercolonies, leading to worker death in 98% of the trials."

Keller's group theorized that the ants found a sort of paradise in Europe, free from competition and full of food. Because invading ant species nests tend to be closer together, a behavior seen in both fire

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Approximate Word count = 891
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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