![]() "We collected more than 300 live ant colonies and set them up in artificial nests," Booher said. The team tested how well the ants tolerated sharing their nests with individuals of the same species from other nests. Native leaf-litter ants differ from the invaders in at least one significant trait, the researchers found. "Our biggest worry is that the loss of a few key species that act as specialized predators or seed-dispersers could have ecological consequences for these already threatened ecosystems," Booher said. Future studies should examine whether certain ecological functions are lost when native ants decline. While native and nonnative leaf-litter ants share many traits and likely perform some of the same ecosystem services, the science is still unsettled as to whether the invasives will fill the same niches, the researchers said. "They also are very susceptible to heat and water stress, as they require humid environments." "These communities are sensitive to habitat loss, especially the loss of canopy trees," he said. These ants rely on the litter that accumulates under trees and other plants, Suarez said. "Many of them are small specialist predators, like trap-jaw ants of the genus Strumigenys, which are solitary hunters that specialize in catching small arthropods like springtails." Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Corrie Moreau, a professor of entomology and of ecology and evolution at Cornell University. "Leaf-litter ants tend to be very small, just a few millimeters in length, so moving through soil, leaves and other litter is like climbing over hills for them," said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign evolution, ecology and behavior professor Andrew Suarez, who led the research with Douglas Booher, a research entomologist with the U.S. Reported in the journal Current Biology, the findings point to a potential future devoid of native ants, the researchers said. ![]() The nonnative ants are most likely arriving with goods transported to Florida from around the world. ![]() Their dominance grew most notably in southern Florida, where nonnatives increased from 43% to 73% over the decades studied. Nonnative ants represented 30% of the 177 ground-dwelling species detected in surveys across the state in later years, the team reports. ![]() The study tracked leaf-litter ant abundance from 1965 to 2019. ![]()
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