ArticlePloS one2013
The effect of diet and opponent size on aggressive interactions involving caribbean crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva).
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Seasonal Variation in Bait Attractiveness Among Six Mediterranean Pest Ant Species: Implications for Toxic Bait Development.Insects · 2026Article
- Ritualized aggressive behavior reveals distinct social structures in native and introduced range tawny crazy ants.PloS one · 2019Article
- Supercolonial structure of invasive populations of the tawny crazy ant Nylanderia fulva in the US.BMC evolutionary biology · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biotic interactions are often important in the establishment and spread of invasive species. In particular, competition between introduced and native species can strongly influence the distribution and spread of exotic species and in some cases competition among introduced species can be important. The Caribbean crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, was recently introduced to the Gulf Coast of Texas, and appears to be spreading inland. It has been hypothesized that competition with the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, may be an important factor in the spread of crazy ants. We investigated the potential of interspecific competition among these two introduced ants by measuring interspecific aggression between Caribbean crazy ant workers and workers of Solenopsis invicta. Specifically, we examined the effect of body size and diet on individual-level aggressive interactions among crazy ant workers and fire ants. We found that differences in diet did not alter interactions between crazy ant workers from different nests, but carbohydrate level did play an important role in antagonistic interactions with fire ants: crazy ants on low sugar diets were more aggressive and less likely to be killed in aggressive encounters with fire ants. We found that large fire ants engaged in fewer fights with crazy ants than small fire ants, but fire ant size affected neither fire ant nor crazy ant mortality. Overall, crazy ants experienced higher mortality than fire ants after aggressive encounters. Our findings suggest that fire ant workers might outcompete crazy ant workers on an individual level, providing some biotic resistance to crazy ant range expansion. However, this resistance may be overcome by crazy ants that have a restricted sugar intake, which may occur when crazy ants are excluded from resources by fire ants.
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