The Evolution of invasiveness in garden ants
Cremer, Sylvia (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Ugelvig, Line V. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Drijfhout, Falko P. (Keele University (Regne Unit). School of Physical and Geographical Sciences)
Schlick-Steiner, Birgit C. (Innsbruck University (Àustria). Institute of Ecology)
Steiner, Florian M. (Innsbruck University (Àustria). Institute of Ecology)
Seifert, Bernhard (Natural History Museum Görlitz (Alemanya))
Hughes, David P. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Schulz, Andreas (Dormagen (Alemanya))
Petersen, Klaus S. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Konrad, Heino (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Viena, Àustria). Department of Forest and Soil Sciences)
Stauffer, Christian (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Viena, Àustria). Department of Forest and Soil Sciences)
Kiran, Kadri (Trakya University (Edirne, Turquia). Department of Biology)
Espadaler, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
d'Ettorre, Patrizia (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Aktaç, Nihat (Trakya University (Edirne, Turquia). Department of Biology)
Eilenberg, Jorgen (University of Copenhagen. Department of Ecology)
Jones, Graeme R. (Keele University (Regne Unit). School of Physical and Geographical Sciences)
Nash, David R. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Pedersen, Jes S. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)
Boomsma, Jacobus J. (University of Copenhagen. Department of Biology)

Data:	2008
Resum:	It is unclear why some species become successful invaders whilst others fail, and whether invasive success depends on pre-adaptations already present in the native range or on characters evolving de-novo after introduction. Ants are among the worst invasive pests, with Lasius neglectus and its rapid spread through Europe and Asia as the most recent example of a pest ant that may become a global problem. Here, we present the first integrated study on behavior, morphology, population genetics, chemical recognition and parasite load of L. neglectus and its non-invasive sister species L. turcicus. We find that L. neglectus expresses the same supercolonial syndrome as other invasive ants, a social system that is characterized by mating without dispersal and large networks of cooperating nests rather than smaller mutually hostile colonies. We conclude that the invasive success of L. neglectus relies on a combination of parasite-release following introduction and pre-adaptations in mating system, body-size, queen number and recognition efficiency that evolved long before introduction. Our results challenge the notion that supercolonial organization is an inevitable consequence of low genetic variation for chemical recognition cues in small invasive founder populations. We infer that low variation and limited volatility in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles already existed in the native range in combination with low dispersal and a highly viscous population structure. Human transport to relatively disturbed urban areas thus became the decisive factor to induce parasite release, a well established general promoter of invasiveness in non-social animals and plants, but understudied in invasive social insects.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Formigues ; Lasius neglectus
Publicat a:	PloS one, Vol. 3, Issue 12 (December 2008) , p. e3838, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003838
PMID: 19050762

9 p, 444.4 KB

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