Posted on 07/03/2009 5:48:39 AM PDT by Daveinyork
Matt Walker Editor, Earth News A queen and worker Argentine ant have many, many relatives A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica. These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops. In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan. The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society Entomologists reveal the ant colony's true size While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct. But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony. Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Hail Ants!
Fine, let the ants solve 'global warming' then!
I welcome our new ant overlords. : P
The only ants standing up and destroying them in my area are black wood ants which survive by their sheer mandible power and organization tactics: they will invariably send search parties for other collonies and then come back with reinforcements to destroy them.
Just one more competent than this one...
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Gods |
Interesting -- now the question is, how long ago were these Argentine ants introduced in Europe and Japan.Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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(where's James Whitmore when you really need him?) /s
Geeze, guess we had better stock up on Sevin Dust.
Excellent idea. Don't forget the USA.
Barney’s the queen?
Mankind can not begin to venture into space and hope to encounter alien beings until it learns to communicate with the colonial insects.
So far, we have learned to take advantage of honey bees is what is a co operative effort, but we still can’t communicate
*snerk!*
Where did the map come from?
It shows my county in Texas as having these ants.
I call BS. I’ll put them up against our Fire ants any time any where.
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