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1. Direct evidence of native ant displacement by the Argentine ant in island ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-02121-7  

   Naughton, I. (November 2020, Biological invasions)

   null (Ed.)

   Ecological impacts associated with ant introductions have received considerable attention, but most studies that report on these impacts contrast species assemblages between invaded and uninvaded sites. Given the low inferential power of this type of space-for-time comparison, alternative approaches are needed to evaluate claims that ant invasions drive native species loss. Here, we use long-term data sets from two different Argentine ant eradication programs on the California Channel Islands to examine how the richness and composition of native ant assemblages change before and after invasion (but prior to the initiation of treatments). At four different sites on two different islands, pre-invasion native ant assemblages closely resembled those at uninvaded (control) sites in terms of species richness, species composition, and the presence of multiple indicator species. Invader arrival coincided with large (> 75%) and rapid (within 1 year) declines in species richness, shifts in species composition, and the loss of indicator species. These impacts will hopefully be reversed by the recolonization of formerly invaded areas by native ant species following Argentine ant treatment, and long-term studies of native ant recovery at these sites are ongoing. Unchecked spread of the Argentine ant on other islands in this archipelago, however, poses a grave threat to native ants, which include a number of endemic taxa. 

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2. Does ant–plant mutualism have spillover effects on the non‐partner ant community?

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8524  

   Donald, Marion L.; Miller, Tom E. X. (January 2022, Ecology and Evolution)

   Abstract Mutualism benefits partner species, and theory predicts these partnerships can affect the abundance, diversity, and composition of partner and non‐partner species. We used 16 years of monitoring data to determine the ant partner species of tree cholla cacti (Cylindropuntia imbricata), which reward ants with extrafloral nectar in exchange for anti‐herbivore defense. These long‐term data revealed one dominant ant partner (Liometopum apiculatum) and two less common partners (Crematogaster opuntiaeandForelius pruinosus). We then used short‐term characterization of the terrestrial ant community by pitfall trapping to sample partner and non‐partner ant species across ten plots of varying cactus density. We found that the dominant ant partner tended a higher proportion cacti in plots of higher cactus density, and was also found at higher occurrence within the pitfall traps in higher density plots, suggesting a strong positive feedback that promotes ant partner occurrence where plant partners are available. Despite the strong association and increased partner occurrence, ant community‐wide effects from this mutualism appear limited. Of the common ant species, the occurrence of a single non‐partner ant species was negatively associated with cactus density and with the increased presence ofL. apiculatum. Additionally, the composition and diversity of the ant community in our plots were insensitive to cactus density variation, indicating that positive effects of the mutualism on the dominant ant partner did not have cascading impacts on the ant community. This study provides novel evidence that exclusive mutualisms, even those with a strong positive feedback, may be limited in the scope of their community‐level effects. 

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3. The Global Ant Genomics Alliance (GAGA)

   Boomsma, JJ; Brady, SG; Dunn, RR; Gadau, J; Heinze, J; Keller, L; Sanders, NJ; Schrader, L; Schultz, TR; Sundström, L; et al (January 2017, Myrmecological news)
4. The coevolution of fungus-ant agriculture

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn7179  

   Schultz, Ted R; Sosa-Calvo, Jeffrey; Kweskin, Matthew P; Lloyd, Michael W; Dentinger, Bryn; Kooij, Pepijn W; Vellinga, Else C; Rehner, Stephen A; Rodrigues, Andre; Montoya, Quimi V; et al (October 2024, Science)

   Fungus-farming ants cultivate multiple lineages of fungi for food, but, because fungal cultivar relationships are largely unresolved, the history of fungus-ant coevolution remains poorly known. We designed probes targeting >2000 gene regions to generate a dated evolutionary tree for 475 fungi and combined it with a similarly generated tree for 276 ants. We found that fungus-ant agriculture originated ~66 million years ago when the end-of-Cretaceous asteroid impact temporarily interrupted photosynthesis, causing global mass extinctions but favoring the proliferation of fungi. Subsequently, ~27 million years ago, one ancestral fungal cultivar population became domesticated, i.e., obligately mutualistic, when seasonally dry habitats expanded in South America, likely isolating the cultivar population from its free-living, wet forest–dwelling conspecifics. By revealing these and other major transitions in fungus-ant coevolution, our results clarify the historical processes that shaped a model system for nonhuman agriculture. 

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5. Untangling the ant claws: the army ant Labidus mars is a Neivamyrmex (Formicidae: Dorylinae)

   https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixaf016  

   DuVal, Megan_E L; Probst, Rodolfo S; Branstetter, Michael G; Longino, John T (May 2025, Insect Systematics and Diversity)

   Beza-Beza, Cristian (Ed.)

   Abstract The New World army ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) comprise the 5 genera of the Eciton species group, and together they are important keystone predators in tropical and subtropical environments. Generic boundaries in the group have been considered solid and stable for nearly 100 years. Workers of the widespread and diverse genus Neivamyrmex are readily separable from the other 4 genera by lacking a subapical tooth on the tarsal claw, while males can be separated with genitalic characters. The genus Labidus is also widespread and is often abundant, with several species that are conspicuous surface foragers. The least known species of Labidus is L. mars, the workers of which have the tarsal tooth but otherwise share many traits with some Neivamyrmex, being completely eyeless and subterranean. This led us to question its generic placement. Here, we used ultraconserved element (UCE) phylogenomics to show that Labidus mars belongs to the genus Neivamyrmex. All phylogenies, inferred using multiple partitioning schemes and a species tree analysis, recovered the same topology, placing Labidus mars workers within Neivamyrmex. Sequenced males of L. mars were found to be within Labidus and thus incorrectly associated with L. mars. Based on these results and review of key specimens, including types, the following taxonomic changes are made: Neivamyrmex mars (Forel 1912) is a new combination; Labidus nero (Santschi 1930) (rev. stat.) is a male-based taxon revived from synonymy under L. mars; and L. denticulatus (Borgmeier 1955) (new stat.), a male-based taxon and former subspecies of L. mars, is raised to species. 

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