Yellow crazy ant

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Anoplolepis gracilipes
Starr 050610 2340 anoplolepis gracilipes.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Genus: Anoplolepis
Species:
A. gracilipes
Binomial name
Anoplolepis gracilipes
F. Smith, 1857
Synonyms

Formica longipes
Plagiolepis longipes
Anoplolepis longipes [1]

Contents

The yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), also known as the long-legged ant or Maldive ant, is a species of ant, thought to be native to West Africa or Asia. They have been accidentally introduced to numerous places in the world's tropics. [2] [3]

The yellow crazy ant has colloquially been given the modifier "crazy" on account of the ant's erratic movements when disturbed. Its long legs and antennae make it one of the largest invasive ant species in the world. [1] [4]

Like several other invasive ants, such as the red imported fire ant ( Solenopsis invicta ), the big-headed ant ( Pheidole megacephala ), the little fire ant ( Wasmannia auropunctata ), and the Argentine ant ( Linepithema humile ), the yellow crazy ant is a "tramp ant", a species that easily becomes established and dominant in new habitat due to traits such as aggression toward other ant species, little aggression toward members of its own species, efficient recruitment, and large colony size. [5]

It is on a list of "one hundred of the world's worst invasive species" formulated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), [6] having invaded ecosystems from Hawaii to the Seychelles, and formed supercolonies on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. [7]

In 2023, a scientific article postulated a unique reproductive cycle for A. gracilipes, suggesting that males are obligate chimeras. [8]

Physiology

Anoplolepis gracilipes is a relatively large, yellow to orange ant with long legs, large eyes and extremely long antennal scapes.

Although A. gracilipes is the only invasive species in the genus Anoplolepis, there are several other genera for which it can be mistaken. Both Leptomyrmex and Oecophylla can be confused with Anoplolepis because of their similar sizes and very long limbs. Anoplolepis can be distinguished from Leptomyrmex by the presence of an acidopore, while Anoplolepis can be distinguished from Oecophylla by the more compact petiole. Although both of these genera occur in the Pacific, neither contain any invasive species.

Several species of invasive ants belonging to the genera Camponotus and Paratrechina can appear similar to A. gracilipes. Although several invasive species of Pheidole can also be slender-bodied with long legs and long antennal scapes, they can be separated from A. gracilipes by their two-segmented waists.

A. gracilipes is widespread across the tropics, and populations are especially dense in the Pacific region. The species is most infamous for causing the ecological "meltdown" of Christmas Island. [9] [7] Although widespread across the Pacific, A. gracilipes can cause significant damage to native biological diversity. Strong quarantine measures are encouraged to keep it from spreading to new localities.

Geographical range and dispersal

A dead gecko being dragged by yellow crazy ants in India YellowCrazyAnt-Dinakarr-4May11.JPG
A dead gecko being dragged by yellow crazy ants in India

The yellow crazy ant's natural habitats are the moist tropical lowlands of Southeast Asia, and surrounding areas and islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. [10] It has been introduced into a wide range of tropical and subtropical environments including northern Australia, some of the Caribbean islands, some Indian Ocean islands (Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, the Cocos Islands and the Christmas Islands) [7] and some Pacific islands (New Caledonia, Hawaii, French Polynesia, Okinawa, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Johnston Atoll, and the Galapagos archipelago). [11] [12] The species has been known to occupy such agricultural systems as cinnamon, citrus, coffee and coconut plantations. Because yellow crazy ants have generalized nesting habits, they are able to disperse via trucks, boats and other forms of human transport. [1]

Crazy ant colonies naturally disperse through "budding", i.e. when mated queens and workers leave the nest to establish a new one, and only rarely through flight via female winged reproductive forms. Generally, colonies that disperse through budding have a lower rate of dispersal, requiring human intervention to reach distant areas. It has been recorded that A. gracilipes moves as much as 400 m (1,300 ft) a year in the Seychelles. [11] A survey on Christmas Island, however, yielded an average spreading speed of 3 meters (9.8 ft) per day, the equivalent of one kilometer (0.6 mile) per year. [13]

Diet

A. gracilipes (yellow crazy ants) moving a dead American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) toward their nest in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia Anoplolepis gracilipes moving Blattidae sp. toward nest.jpg
A. gracilipes (yellow crazy ants) moving a dead American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) toward their nest in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

A gracilipes has been described as a "scavenging predator" exhibiting a broad diet, a characteristic of many invasive species. It consumes a wide variety of foods, including grains, seeds, arthropods, and decaying matter such as vertebrate corpses. They have been reported to attack and dismember invertebrates such as small isopods, myriapods, molluscs, arachnids, land crabs, earthworms and insects. [13]

Like all ants, A gracilipes requires a protein-rich food source for the queen to lay eggs and carbohydrates as energy for the workers. They get their carbohydrates from plant nectar and honeydew producing insects, especially scale insects, aphids, and other Sternorrhyncha. Studies indicate that crazy ants rely so much on scale insects that a scarcity of them can actually limit ant population growth. [11]

Reproduction

Similar to other ants, the queen produces eggs which are fertilized by male sperm that are stored in sperm stores. When an egg is fertilized, there are three distinct events that can happen: (i) the resulting diploid organism develops into a queen if the egg is fertilized by an R sperm or (ii) into an infertile diploid worker if the egg is fertilized by a W sperm. However, a third outcome has been described in a 2023 scientific study: (iii) the egg is fertilized by a W sperm but the parental nuclei bypasses the fusion of the two gametes and divide separately within the same egg, leading to a haploid male that is chimeric with a portion of cells carrying the W genome and a portion of cells carrying the R genome. [8] Interestingly, not all tissues have equal proportions of each cell line, with sperm cells mostly carrying the W genome and thus providing the W alleles with a fitness advantage. [8] This is the first known case of obligate chimerism in animals. [14] [15]

Mutualism

Crazy ants obtain much of their food requirements from scale insects, serious plant pests that feed on sap of trees and release honeydew, a sugary liquid. Ants eat honeydew, and in return protect the scale from their enemies and spread them among trees, an example of mutualism. The honeydew not eaten by the ants drips onto the trees and encourages the growth of sooty mold over the leaves and stems. This gives plants an ugly black appearance and reduces their health and vigor.

The ants protect the insects by "nannying" the mobile crawler stages and protecting them against their natural enemies. [16] Experiments have shown that this connection is so strong that, in environments where A. gracilipes was removed, the density of scale insects dropped by 67% within 11 weeks, and to zero after 12 months. [17]

In Australia

In Australia, yellow crazy ants have been found at more than 30 sites in Queensland, and in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, where a large scattered population exists. [18] A single New South Wales infestation was detected and eradicated, and, in Western Australia, yellow crazy ants have been intercepted in shipping freight arriving at Fremantle. [19]

Queensland's main infestation is 830 hectares (2,100 acres) in and around Wet Tropics of Queensland rainforest, a World Heritage Site. [18] The Northern Territory infestation covers 2,500 square kilometres (970 sq mi), [19] an area larger than the Australian Capital Territory. [20]

Climate modelling indicates yellow crazy ants could spread across northern Australia from Queensland to Western Australia, across much of Queensland and into coastal and inland parts of New South Wales. [19] Areas with the most ideal habitat and climatic conditions, such as the Wet Tropics of Queensland rainforests, are likely to experience the highest impacts. [21]

A cost–benefit analysis by the Queensland government undertaken in 2012 found that yellow crazy ants could cost Australia's economy over A$3 billion if the ants were not treated. This analysis did not take potential impacts on Australia's biodiversity into account. [21] The known impacts of crazy ants in tropical rainforests overseas may provide useful insights into these impacts, bearing in mind that the most significant impacts are associated with relatively small islands, such as Christmas Island. [19] [7]

Impact on Christmas Island

Crazy ants have had a profound impact on the biodiversity of Christmas Island. [19] [7]

The crazy ant has a significant destructive impact on the island's ecosystem, killing and displacing crabs on the forest floor. The supercolonies also devastate crab numbers migrating to the coast. This has seen a rapid depletion in the number of land crabs [7] — killing up to 20 million of them [7] — which are vital to Christmas Island's biodiversity; land crabs are a keystone species in the forest ecology: they dig burrows, turn over the soil, and fertilize it with their droppings. [22]

Seedlings that were previously eaten by crabs started to grow and, as a result, changed the structure of the forest. Weeds have spread into the rainforest because there are no crabs to control them. One of the most noticeable changes in the forest is the increased numbers of the stinging tree Dendrocnide peltata , which now flourishes in many areas frequently visited by humans. The forest canopy also changed as the scale insects tended by yellow crazy ants multiplied and killed mature trees. [23] [21]

Christmas Island red crabs are completely wiped out in infested areas. [7] Populations of other ground and canopy dwelling animals, such as reptiles and other leaf litter fauna, have also decreased. During crab migrations, many crabs move through areas infested with ants and are killed. Studies show that the ant has displaced an estimated 15–20 million [7] crabs by occupying their burrows, killing and eating resident crabs, and using their burrows as nest sites. This factor has greatly depleted red crabs, and made their annual land migrations far more perilous. [24] [25]

Although crazy ants do not bite or sting, they spray formic acid as a defence mechanism and to subdue their prey. In areas of high ant density, the movement of a land crab disturbs the ants and, as a result, the ants instinctively spray formic acid as a form of defence. The high levels of formic acid at ground level eventually overwhelm the crabs, and they are usually blinded then eventually die from dehydration (while attempting to flush off the formic acid) and exhaustion. As the dead crabs decay, the protein becomes available to the ants. [21]

Crazy ants kill fauna, but encourage scale insects. Increased densities of scale insects cause forest die back, and even the death of large forest trees. These changes create a cascade of negative impacts, including weed invasion, significantly altering the forest landscape.

Supercolonies

Christmas Island is a focal point for international control efforts. These supercolonies spread farther and cause more damage than single colonies, and they pose the single greatest known threat to the island's biodiversity.

Staff from Christmas Island National Park have worked in recent years to keep ant numbers in check. With help from the Christmas Island Crazy Ant Scientific Advisory Panel and support from the Australian Government they are holding ground.

Another supercolony nearly devastated the bird fauna of Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The single massive colony was found to occupy nearly a quarter of the island, with up to 1,000 queens in a plot of land 6 metres (20 ft) wide. The infestation is thought to have been eradicated. [26]

Control measures

To reduce the impacts of crazy ants on red crabs and Christmas Island's ecosystems the Parks Australia carried out a major aerial baiting program in 2009, to follow up the first aerial baiting conducted in 2002. The first step was conducting an extensive island-wide survey to determine the exact locations of the supercolonies. For several months, staff traversed the island surveying over 900 sites. The result was a map of crazy ant supercolonies and red crab burrow densities, together with other biodiversity data.

In September 2009, a helicopter was used to precisely bait crazy ant supercolonies, which covered 784 hectares (1,940 acres) of the island. A very low concentration of fipronil bait (0.1%) was used to control the ants. Monthly monitoring of these baited supercolony sites shows that crazy ant densities were reduced by 99%.

Park staff placed a high emphasis on minimising non-target impact of baiting. Food lures were dropped from a helicopter to attract robber crabs away from areas that were about to be baited. This technique, combined with the low concentration fipronil bait, proved to be highly successful with extremely low numbers of robber crabs and no red crabs known to be killed by the baiting.

While baiting has slowed the decline of the red crab, its effects on the crazy ant populations are only temporary, as escaping colonies invade the treated areas again, and it is expensive, requiring much man power. In an effort to find a better control, after research, Australian Parks in December 2016 imported Tachardiaephagus somervillei, a small (2 millimetres (5⁄64 in)) wasp and began breeding them for release. The wasp, which attacks only scale insects, is a voracious predator of what is believed to be one of the crazy ant's largest source of honeydew on Christmas Island, the yellow lac scale insect. [27]

Researchers from La Trobe University in Melbourne, funded by Parks Australia, began looking for biological controls in 2009. While the ants are omnivores, studies have shown honeydew is an important part of the diet of Christmas Island crazy ants. Samples of ants taken from colonies that are growing rapidly have more honeydew in their diet than when the colonies decline. Further, restricting access to honeydew, by binding trees where the scale insects feed, dramatically reduced the colony as ant activity on the ground fell by 95% in just four weeks. [28] In the laboratory, colonies with limited sources of sugar were compared to colonies with access to abundant sugar. Those with abundant sugar had more fertile queens and lower death rates among workers. The workers were also more aggressive toward other ant species and explored their environments more. This is believed to show why the ants decline when deprived of access to scale insects in the field, and confirm reduced honeydew will greatly reduce the ants' ability to form super colonies. [24]

While controlling the scale insect is expected to control the yellow crazy ant on Christmas Island, on mainland Australia it is thought this would not help. There are at least a dozen honeydew producing insects as well as extrafloral nectar from native acacia trees, all of which fuel yellow crazy ants. [27]

Experts continue to call for a fully funded, long term baiting program on mainland Australia. [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ant colony</span> Underground lair where ants live, eat, and tend eggs

An ant colony is a population of ants, typically from a single species, capable of maintaining their complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the various groups of these developed sociality independently through convergent evolution. The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, numerous sterile females and, seasonally, many winged sexual males and females. In order to establish new colonies, ants undertake flights that occur at species-characteristic times of the day. Swarms of the winged sexuals depart the nest in search of other nests. The males die shortly thereafter, along with most of the females. A small percentage of the females survive to initiate new nests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invasive species in Australia</span>

Invasive species in Australia are a serious threat to the native biodiversity, and an ongoing cost to Australian agriculture. Numerous species arrived with European maritime exploration and colonisation of Australia and steadily since then.

<i>Tapinoma sessile</i> Species of ant

Tapinoma sessile is a species of small ant that goes by the common names odorous house ant, sugar ant, stink ant, and coconut ant. Their colonies are polydomous and polygynous. Like many social insects, T. sessile employs complex foraging strategies, allocates food depending on environmental conditions, and engages in competition with other insects.

<i>Icerya purchasi</i> Species of true bug

Icerya purchasi is a scale insect that feeds on more than 80 families of woody plants, most notably on Citrus and Pittosporum. Originally described in 1878 from specimens collected in New Zealand as pests of kangaroo acacia and named by W.M. Maskell "after the Rev. Dr. Purchas who, [he] believe[d], first found it", it is now found worldwide where citrus crops are grown. The cottony cushion scale originates from Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas imperial pigeon</span> Species of bird

The Christmas imperial pigeon or Christmas Island imperial pigeon, also known as Black imperial pigeon, Dusky imperial pigeon, Wharton's imperial pigeon, or burong pergam, is a large imperial pigeon endemic to Christmas Island in the northeastern Indian Ocean. It has an overall grey-blue colouration, and juveniles are duller than adults. It makes a soft purring coo sound and a deeper whoo sound comparable to a cow mooing. It lays one glossy white egg per brood, and is possibly somewhat colonial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas boobook</span> Species of owl

The Christmas boobook, also known more specifically as the Christmas Island hawk-owl, is a species of owl in the family Strigidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas white-eye</span> Species of bird

The Christmas white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Christmas Island. Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and subtropical or tropical moist shrubland. It is threatened by habitat destruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas Island shrew</span> Species of mammal

The Christmas Island shrew, also known as the Christmas Island musk-shrew is an extremely rare or possibly extinct shrew from Christmas Island. It was variously placed as subspecies of the Asian gray shrew or the Southeast Asian shrew, but morphological differences and the large distance between the species indicate that it is an entirely distinct species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rasberry crazy ant</span> Species of ant

The tawny crazy ant or Rasberry crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, is an ant originating in South America. Like the longhorn crazy ant, this species is called "crazy ant" because of its quick, unpredictable movements. It is sometimes called the "Rasberry crazy ant" in Texas after the exterminator Tom Rasberry, who noticed that the ants were increasing in numbers in 2002. Scientists have reorganised the genera taxonomy within this clade of ants, and now it is identified as Nylanderia fulva.

<i>Technomyrmex albipes</i> Species of ant

Technomyrmex albipes, commonly known as the white-footed ant, is a species of ant first described in 1861 from Sulawesi, Indonesia by the British entomologist Frederick Smith. Invasive pest ants in Florida, previously identified as T. albipes, have now been separated as Technomyrmex difficilis, both forming part of a species complex with a worldwide distribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas Island National Park</span> Protected area in Australia

Christmas Island National Park is a national park occupying most of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean southwest of Indonesia. The park is home to many species of animal and plant life, including the eponymous red crab, whose annual migration sees around 100 million crabs move to the sea to spawn. Christmas Island is the only nesting place for the endangered Abbott's booby and critically endangered Christmas Island frigatebird, and the wide range of other endemic species makes the island of significant interest to the scientific community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argentine ant</span> Species of ant

The Argentine ant is an ant native to northern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and southern Brazil. This invasive species was inadvertently introduced by humans on a global scale and has become established in many Mediterranean climate areas, including South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, Easter Island, Australia, the Azores, Europe, Hawaii, and the continental United States. Argentine ants are significant pests within agricultural and urban settings, and are documented to cause substantial harm to communities of native arthropods, vertebrates, and plants within their invaded range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric ant</span> Species of ant

The little fire ant, also known as the electric ant, is a small, light to golden brown (ginger) social ant native to Central and South America, now spread to parts of Africa, Taiwan, North America, Puerto Rico, Israel, Cuba, and six Pacific Island groups plus north-eastern Australia (Cairns). It is a very harmful invasive species.

<i>Pheidole megacephala</i> Species of ant

Pheidole megacephala is a species of ant in the family Formicidae. It is commonly known as the big-headed ant in the US and the coastal brown ant in Australia. It is a very successful invasive species and is considered a danger to native ants in Australia and other places. It is regarded as one of the world's worst invasive ant species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longhorn crazy ant</span> Species of ant

The longhorn crazy ant, also known as the black crazy ant, is a species of small, dark-coloured insect in the family Formicidae. These ants are commonly called "crazy ants" because instead of following straight lines, they dash around erratically. They have a broad distribution, including much of the tropics and subtropics, and are also found in buildings in more temperate regions, making them one of the most widespread ant species in the world. This species, as well as all others in the ant subfamily Formicinae, cannot sting. However, this species can fire/shoot a formic acid spray from its abdomen when under attack by other insects or attacking other insects. When the longhorn crazy ant bends its abdomen while aiming at an enemy insect, it is typically shooting its hard-to-see acid.

<i>Trichomyrmex destructor</i> Species of ant

Trichomyrmex destructor is a species of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Its common names include destructive trailing ant or Singapore ant. It is a pest species in urban areas, known for causing costly damage to structures, vehicles, and electronic devices with its chewing activity. In 2015, the species was moved from the genus Monomorium to the revised genus Trichomyrmex.

<i>Cryptoblepharus egeriae</i> Species of reptile

Cryptoblepharus egeriae, also known commonly as the blue-tailed shinning-skink, the Christmas Island blue-tailed shinning-skink, and the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae that was once endemic to Christmas Island. The Christmas Island blue-tailed skink was discovered in 1888. It was formerly the most abundant reptile on the island, and occurred in high numbers particularly near the human settlement. However, the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink began to decline sharply outwardly from the human settlement by the early 1990s, which coincided with the introduction of a predatory snake and also followed the introduction of the yellow crazy ant in the mid-1980s. By 2006, the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink was on the endangered animals list, and by 2010 the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink was extinct in the wild. From 2009 to 2010, Parks Australia and Taronga Zoo started a captive breeding program, which has prevented total extinction of the species.

<i>Plagiolepis alluaudi</i> Species of ant

Plagiolepis alluaudi, the little yellow ant, is a species of Plagiolepis. The species is native to Madagascar, an island off the coast of East Africa. It is known to be a widespread invasive species. In an effort to distinguish its name from other small and yellow species of ant it may be called Alluaud's little yellow ant, after Charles A. Alluaud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife of Christmas Island</span>

The wildlife of Christmas Island is composed of the flora and fauna of this isolated island in the tropical Indian Ocean. Christmas Island is the summit plateau of an underwater volcano. It is mostly clad in tropical rainforest and has karst, cliffs, wetlands, coasts and sea. It is a small island with a land area of 135 km2 (52 sq mi), 63% of which has been declared a National park. Most of the rainforest remains intact and supports a large range of endemic species of animals and plants.

In ecology, a tramp species is an organism that has been spread globally by human activities. The term was coined by William Morton Wheeler in the bulletin of the American museum of natural history in 1906, used to describe ants that “have made their way as well known tramps or stow-aways[sic] to many islands The term has since widened to include non-ant organisms, but remains most popular in myrmecology. Tramp species have been noted in multiple phyla spanning both animal and plant kingdoms, including but not limited to arthropods, mollusca, bryophytes, and pteridophytes. The term "tramp species" was popularized and given a more set definition by Luc Passera in his chapter of David F William's 1994 book Exotic Ants: Biology, Impact, And Control Of Introduced Species.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Anoplolepis gracilipes. Global Invasive Species Database. ISSG.
  2. ↑ Davies, Ella. "Battle of the Ants". BBC. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  3. ↑ "One Remote Island's Battle Against Acid-Spewing Ants". Audubon. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  4. ↑ "Pests and Diseases Image Library: Anoplolepis gracilipes". Archived from the original on 2008-07-29.
  5. ↑ Kirschenbaum, R. and Grace, J. K. 2008. "Agonistic responses of the tramp ants Anoplolepis gracilipes, Pheidole megacephala, Linepithema humile, and Wasmannia auropunctata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)" (PDF). Sociobiology. 51 (3): 673–84.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ One Hundred of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species. Global Invasive Species Database. Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), IUCN Species Survival Commission.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Help push back against the march of yellow crazy ants". Invasive Species Council. 2020-12-17. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  8. 1 2 3 Darras, H.; Berney, C.; Hasin, S.; Drescher, J.; Feldhaar, H.; Keller, L. (April 7, 2023). "Obligate chimerism in male yellow crazy ants". Science. 380 (6640): 55–58. doi:10.1126/science.adf0419. PMID   37023182. S2CID   257985666.
  9. ↑ O'Dowd, Dennis J.; Green, Peter T.; Lake, P. S. (2003). "Invasional 'meltdown' on an oceanic island" (PDF). Ecology Letters. 6 (9): 812–817. doi:10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00512.x.
  10. ↑ "Anoplolepis gracilipes". The Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics (GABI) database. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 Holoway D.A., David A.; Lach, Lori; Suarez, Andrew V.; Tsutsui, Neil D.; Case, Ted J. (2002). "The causes and consequences of ant invasions". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 33: 181–233. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.33.010802.150444. S2CID   16691880.
  12. ↑ McGlynn T.P., Terrence P. (1999). "The Worldwide Transfer of Ants: Geographical Distribution and Ecological Invasions". Journal of Biogeography. 26 (3): 535–548. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.1999.00310.x. S2CID   83955798.
  13. 1 2 O’Dowd D.J. (1999). "Crazy Ant Attack". Wingspan. 9 (2): 7.
  14. ↑ Bob Yirka. "Yellow crazy ant males have two sets of DNA".
  15. ↑ Callaway, Ewen (April 6, 2023). "Crazy ants' strange genomes are a biological first". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-01002-3. S2CID   258007429 – via www.nature.com.
  16. ↑ Ness, J.H.; Bronstein, J.L.; et al. (2004). "The Effects of Invasive Ants on Prospective ant Mutualists". Biological Invasions. 6 (4): 445–461. doi:10.1023/B:BINV.0000041556.88920.dd. S2CID   10180210.
  17. ↑ Abbott, Kirsti L.; Green, Peter T.; et al. (2007). "Collapse of an ant-scale mutualism in a rainforest on Christmas Island". Oikos. 116 (7): 1238–1246. doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2007.15629.x.
  18. 1 2 Invasive Species Council; (2016) Yellow Crazy Ants In Australia, Invasive Species Council Fact Sheet.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Csurhes, Steve and Hankamer, Clare; 2012 (updated 2016) "Invasive Animal Risk Assessment Yellow Crazy Ant"; Queensland Government of Australia. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  20. ↑ Area of Australia – States and Territories. Geoscience Australia
  21. 1 2 3 4 Hoskin, Conrad and Lach, Lori (2015). "Too much to lose: Yellow crazy ants in the wet tropics" (PDF). Wildlife Australia. 52 (3): 37–41. ISSN   0043-5481.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "Red crab migration". Parks Australia. 2017.
  23. ↑ Davis, Naomi; O’Dowd, Dennis; Green, Peter; MacNally, Ralf (15 July 2008). "Effects of an alien ant invasion on abundance, behaviour, and reproductive success of endemic island birds". Conservation Biology. 22 (5): 1165–1176. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.00984.x. PMID   18637918. S2CID   36086986.
  24. 1 2 Christmas Island yellow crazy ant control program (PDF). environment.gov.au (Report). Department of the Environment, Australia.
  25. ↑ Bittel, Jason (December 24, 2015). "The Christmas crab massacre". nrdc.org. Natural Resources Defense Council.
  26. ↑ "Strike team vanquishes crazy ants at Johnston" (PDF). Environment Hawaii Newsletter. Conservation Registry. September 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  27. 1 2 "Yellow crazy ant biological control arrives on Christmas Island". invasives.org.au (blog). 9 January 2017.
  28. ↑ Lawler, Susan; Green, Peter (2016-12-02). "The wasp saving Christmas Island's crabs" (Press release). La Trobe University.
  29. ↑ Bateman, Daniel (20 May 2016). "Federal funds finally found to combat yellow crazy ants in Far North Queensland". The Cairns Post . Retrieved 2017-03-24.
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