Submitted by Neil Tsutsui on
The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) is widespread invasive ant that has successfully colonized habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Once established, Argentine ants can cause significant negative impacts in their new habitat by outcompeting ecologically important native insects, including native ants. One of the potential keys to the Argentine ants’ invasive success is their ability to form a massive cooperative network of interconnected nests called a supercolony. The largest of these supercolonies stretches across multiple continents and comprises the majority of the ants’ geographic range in Northern and Central California. However, previous undergraduate work in the Tsutsui lab has identified a smaller, behaviorally distinct supercolony near the UC Berkeley Clark Kerr campus, which is behaviorally similar to a known supercolony near Lake Hodges in Southern California. The objective of this project is to identify and monitor the boundaries of this smaller supercolony in Berkeley in order to determine its geographic range and track seasonal shifts in colony boundaries.
This project will contribute to a larger research effort to understand the evolutionary dynamics of supercolonies, including how intraspecific aggression and spatial competition may contribute to the maintenance of unicoloniality in invasive ants.
This project will consist of both lab and field work under the guidance of a graduate student. The majority of the work will take place outdoors on or near campus. A student working on this project would collect ants over the course of several months from various locations near the UC Berkeley campus and perform aggression assays to determine their colony identity.
Field work will be done near the UC Berkeley Clark Kerr Campus and nearby residence buildings; Any laboratory work will take place in the Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley.
Secondary contact: Rachel Weinberg, rachel.weinberg@berkeley.edu
This project is ideal for an undergraduate interested in entomology, evolutionary biology, and/or invasive species. The undergraduate working on this project should be comfortable digging in leaf litter and soil and handling ants and other insects. The student must be motivated to develop good record-keeping habits, including recording the location of collections and correctly labeling and tracking specimens. No previous research experience is necessary.