Disruption of foraging by a dominant invasive species to decrease its competitive ability.

ABSTRACT: Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity when dominant within their newly established habitat. The globally distributed Argentine ant Linepithema humile has been reported to break the trade-off between interference and exploitative competition, achieve high population densities, and overpower nests of many endemic ant species. We have used the sensitivity of the Argentine ant to the synthetic trail pheromone (Z)-9-hexadecanal to investigate species interactions for the first time. We predicted that disrupting Argentine ant trail following behaviour would reduce their competitive ability and create an opportunity for three other resident species to increase their foraging success. Argentine ant success in the control was reduced with increasing pheromone concentration, as predict

SUBMITTER: Westermann FL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3942413 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature