So devastating is this fungal pathogen to invasive crazy ants that it sometimes leads to the extinction of local populations.
But it was around eight years ago that LeBrun began to notice something unusual: A surprising number of tawny crazy ants were discovered to have enlarged abdomens swollen with fat. Looking into this further, he and his colleagues identified the cause as spores from a group of fungal pathogens known as microsporidians. This infectious fungus hijacks the fat cells of tawny crazy ants, turning them into veritable spore factories.
The source of this mysterious pathogen is not yet known. The ants might have brought it from South America or contracted it from other insects. Regardless, the scientists began to notice these infections across much of Texas, prompting a multi-year study to investigate further. From 2012 to 2018, the team repeatedly sampled 15 local populations of tawny crazy ant in the state. As they learned, the effects ofare devastating, to say the least.
That’s intense—infectious pathogens aren’t usually this brutal. Normally, infected populations go “through boom-and-bust cycles as the frequency of infection waxes and wanes,” said LeBrun. In terms of an explanation, the declines in local populations “occurred primarily over the winter,” as the scientists wrote in their study.
More experiments are planned for later this year at other Texas locations, in what is a very encouraging development. It almost seems too good to be true—a natural biocontrol agent that doesn’t seem to be harmful outside of its effect on crazy ants. Hopefully the results will continue to be positive and that conservationists will finally have an effective tool at their disposal to combat these highly problematic ants.
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