Abstract
BackgroundThe invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, is the most recently detected pest ant and the first known invasive ant able to become established and thrive in the temperate regions of Eurasia. In this study, we aim to reconstruct the invasion history of this ant in Europe analysing 14 populations with three complementary approaches: genetic microsatellite analysis, chemical analysis of cuticular hydrocarbon profiles and behavioural observations of aggression behaviour. We evaluate the relative informative power of the three methodological approaches and estimate both the number of independent introduction events from a yet unknown native range somewhere in the Black Sea area, and the invasive potential of the existing introduced populations.ResultsThree clusters of genetically similar populations were detected, and all but one population had a similar chemical profile. Aggression between populations could be predicted from their genetic and chemical distance, and two major clusters of non-aggressive groups of populations were found. However, populations of L. neglectus did not separate into clear supercolonial associations, as is typical for other invasive ants.ConclusionThe three methodological approaches gave consistent and complementary results. All joint evidence supports the inference that the 14 introduced populations of L. neglectus in Europe likely arose from only very few independent introductions from the native range, and that new infestations were typically started through introductions from other invasive populations. This indicates that existing introduced populations have a very high invasive potential when the ants are inadvertently spread by human transport.
Highlights
The invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, is the most recently detected pest ant and the first known invasive ant able to become established and thrive in the temperate regions of Eurasia
An increasing number of studies have used genetic markers in an attempt to trace back source populations and estimate the number of independent introduction events [10,11,12,13], as in the case of an avocado-infecting thrips species recently introduced to California that is an agricultural pest [11]
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to simultaneously implement genetic, chemical and behavioural methodology to assess the affiliation of populations of invasive ants to supercolonies, as similar studies mostly rely on aggression behaviour and genetic analyses
Summary
The invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, is the most recently detected pest ant and the first known invasive ant able to become established and thrive in the temperate regions of Eurasia. BMC Biology 2008, 6:11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/6/11 duction into new localities is available [5,6,7] This type of information is difficult to obtain by direct monitoring, as today most invasive species are introduced unintentionally by human activities: one example is the transport of ballast water, by which ships regularly mix marine species across continents, creating an enormous potential for species invasions [8]. Genetic marker studies are of great general significance as they can be used to unravel phylogeographic relationships between populations, and to estimate the genetic diversity within populations, which typically reflects the severity of founder effects in each population (genetic bottlenecks) [14,15] These genetic effects should be even more pronounced in populations that are a result of sequential introduction events (see, for example, [16])
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