I’ll be the first to admit that I've been a little blog-negligent lately. Even when all of the ice and snow we've gotten here on the East Coast forced me to stay inside I just binge watched shows on Netflix instead. I’m not sure what brought me out of my procrastination funk and compelled me to do a little reading and writing. If you've been following
the Facebook page then you've been getting a lot of yummy sciency tidbits, but it’s time for me to get back on the hard science wagon. I think I’ll start off with a great couple of papers about ant chemical warfare.
These papers focus on invasive ants, a big problem in many regions. To really grasp one of the underlying aspects of their warfare strategies, you must first understand the basics of an invasive species. Start by recognizing the difference between a native species and an exotic species. Put simply, a native species occurs naturally (or natively) to a habitat and an exotic species does not. Exotics can come in any biological form, but they are not necessarily a problem to their new habitat (think:
earthworms). It’s when an exotic species becomes an invasive species that there is a problem because invasives cause environmental, economic, and/or human health harms. The reason for this is that they did not evolve together with the ecosystem in which they find themselves. There are no checks and balances in place to curb their population growth, things like predators, parasites, and competitors. Their unnaturally large population numbers then become harmful to the native species that suddenly have to deal with and compete against them, dramatically altering the community and habitat.
It is often the case that multiple species invade a region. Throughout the rest of this post I’ll be discussing new papers by Michael Kaspari and Michael Weiser and by LeBrun, Jones, and Gilbert (specifically at the latter) that take a look at just such a case in ants. The red imported fire ant (
Solenopsis invicta) first came to the United States from South America around 1930. This species is far more aggressive than your typical American ant, not only in how they like the bite the hell out you (that’s a lot of personal experience talking) but also in their predatory abilities and landscape re-engineering. Now enter the tawny crazy ant (
Nylanderia fulva). This new exotic invasive species was transported to the southeastern U.S. in the early 1980s and has begun to spread.. These two species have common source assemblages, their native ranges overlapping in northern Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. Until the introduction of crazy ants, the fire ant has enjoyed an uninterrupted domination of the native grassland ant assemblages. But now that the crazy ant has arrived on the scene they are displacing the fire ants. Why is this?
Since the fire and crazy ants have overlapping native habitats, they have evolved to compete directly for resources. The tawny crazy ant easily expels the fire ant from any food items it controls, up to 93 percent of the time. Also, tawny crazy ants have often been found living inside fire ant mounts, having usurped the mound and evicted the owners. Fire ants are strong and resilient and so the crazy ants must have a strong competitive advantage.
Now, finally, we get to the meat of the post: chemical warfare. If you've been stung by a fire ant (or ants, plural, as is usually the case) then you know that they pack a wallop! They have an alkaloid venom called
Solenopsin that to humans causes a painful, fiery sting, and to other ants acts as a topical insecticide. The crazy ants do not have stingers but instead possess an acidopore (a specialized exocrine gland) on the end of the abdomen that sprays their venom into a mist of formic acid. They will charge into masses of fire ants misting as they go. But the fire ants don’t just stand by idly to be sprayed with venom and die, they fight back. The fire ants “gaster flag,” extruding venom from their stingers and dabbing it onto a nearby attacking ant. Normally this would result in the death of said ant. However, LeBrun and his colleagues have observed what they are calling a “detoxifying behavior” in the attacking tawny crazy ants. In this behavior, an afflicted ant stands on its hind legs, run its front legs through its mandibles, and grooms itself vigorously, periodically reapplying its acidopore to its mandibles (check out the
video!).
To test this behavior the researchers conducted a series of experiments to see if there is really a detoxifying component, to see where it is coming from, and to evaluate the species-level specificity of the behavior. For the first they staged antagonistic interactions between the two species, sealing a portion of the crazy ant acidopores, and then observing afflicted individuals for behavior and survivorship. They found that those tawny crazy ants that had had their acidopores sealed had a low survival rate (only 48 percent). However, those with working acidophores had a 98 percent survival rate, supporting the detoxifying hypothesis. The Dufour’s and venom glands (exocrine glands used for communication and defense) both duct to the acidopore in this species. To see where the detoxifying agent was coming from they applied solutions of fire ant venom and tawny crazy ant glandular products to Argentine ants (
Linepithema humile), which are morphologically similar to crazy ants but do not have the detoxifying capability. These tests showed the venom gland of the crazy ant to contain the detoxifying agent. When the crazy ant’s formic acid was tested it was found to be the compound responsible for detoxifying fire ant venom.
The production and application of this antidote is a potentially costly endeavor for the crazy ants. Yes, it is the difference between life and death, but when to apply it must be considered. Why use a costly resource if you don’t have to? The authors conducted a series of ant interaction tests where they had crazy ants interact independently with eight Texas ant species including fire ants, observing when the crazy ants chose to apply their detoxifier. They found that after chemical conflict with fire ants, crazy ants detoxified themselves with almost 7 times more frequently than the average response to other ant species. This suggests that this detoxifying behavior is specifically adapted to competition with fire ants, and it is probably a key factor in the displacement of invasive fire ants now underway in the southern United States.
LeBrun, E., Jones, N., & Gilbert, L. (2014). Chemical Warfare Among Invaders: A Detoxification Interaction Facilitates an Ant Invasion Science, 343 (6174), 1014-1017 DOI: 10.1126/science.1245833
Kaspari, M., & Weiser, M. (2014). Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss Science, 343 (6174), 974-975 DOI: 10.1126/science.1251272
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's page on
Invasive Species
The University of Texas at Austin Fire Ant Project
Texas A&M AgriLife Research Extension page on
Tawny Crazy Ants
