Traits allowing some ant species to nest syntopically with the fire ant Solenopsis saevissima in its native range

• Published in: Insect science Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 289 - 294
• Main Authors: Dejean, Alain, Corbara, Bruno, Céréghino, Régis, Leponce, Maurice, Roux, Olivier, Rossi, Vivien, Delabie, Jacques H. C, Compin, Arthur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Blackwell Pub 01-04-2015; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: aggression; Animal behavior; Animals; ant community; Ants - physiology; Bacteriology; Behavior, Animal; Dominance-Subordination; Ecology, environment; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; evolution; fire ants; Formicidae; French Guiana; habitat destruction; invasive species; Life Sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; nesting; Protistology; Solenopsis invicta; Solenopsis saevissima; species coexistence; Species Specificity; supercoloniality; Sympatry; 史密斯; 性状; 红火蚁; 群体大小; 蚁巢; 蚂蚁群落; 行为特征; 进化过程; French Guiana; Solenopsis saevissima; supercoloniality; fire ants; ant community; invasive species; species coexistence
• ISSN: 1672-9609; 1744-7917
• DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.12078

Supercolonies of the red fire ant Solenopsis saevissima (Smith) develop in disturbed environments and likely alter the ant community in the native range of the species. For example, in French Guiana only 8 ant species were repeatedly noted as nesting in close vicinity to its mounds. Here, we verified if a shared set of biological, ecological, and behavioral traits might explain how these 8 species are able to nest in the presence of S. saevissima. We did not find this to be the case. We did find, however, that all of them are able to live in disturbed habitats. It is likely that over the course of evolution each of these species acquired the capacity to live syntopically with S. saevissima through its own set of traits, where colony size (4 species develop large colonies), cuticular compounds which do not trigger aggressiveness (6 species) and submissive behaviors (4 species) complement each other.