solenopsis

Solenopsis pergandei queen and workers Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, diffused twin flash

A Solenopsis invicta queen attempts to escape a pair of tormentors Life is perilous for young ant queens. This fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is being pursued by native Forelius ants after her mating flight in central Florida. She frantically climbs a grass blade to escape, but to no avail- the attackers follow. She will make an excellent source of protein to feed the Forelius larvae. Two larger points about this photo. First, establishing new colonies is tremendously difficult. The founding stage is when most colony-level mortality happens, and this excessive mortality is why ant nests…

Solenopsis invicta - invasive or just disturbed? Prevailing wisdom holds that imported fire ants marched across the southern United States on the virtue of their fierce nature and superior competitive ability.  The fire ant conquest of the south reads like a tale of bravery and intrigue, but according to Walt Tschinkel and Josh King it is also not true.   They have a must-read study in PNAS this week detailing a tight set of field experiments that turns the conventional wisdom upside-down. King and Tschinkel disturbed various patches of native Florida pine forest by mowing or plowing,…