If we were to compare modern native Australian myrmecological species with invasive ones (e.g., Pheidole megacephala), how strong would you say the current biotic resistance is?

Is your question specifically targeted at the impact on native ant species? There are papers documenting the various effects of invasive ant species on multiple levels.

You might be interested in an older paper with long-term data https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-007-9194-x

Or a broader meta-analysis not focused on native ant species: https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12672

On 4/22/2025 at 1:27 PM, CharonY said:

Is your question specifically targeted at the impact on native ant species? There are papers documenting the various effects of invasive ant species on multiple levels.

You might be interested in an older paper with long-term data https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-007-9194-x

Or a broader meta-analysis not focused on native ant species: https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12672

No its what is everyone's opinion on the state of biotic resistance being formed by native Australian ant species.

Define biotic resistance in this context then and what kind of specific information related you seek to find.

14 hours ago, CharonY said:

Define biotic resistance in this context then and what kind of specific information related you seek to find.

The textbook definition is
"Biotic resistance, the ability of communities to resist exotic invasions" - US Forest Service Research and Development

Given the current ecological state of Australia's native ant species, how resistant do you think they would be to foreign ant species, and how effectively would they contribute to biotic resistance?

5 hours ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

Given the current ecological state of Australia's native ant species, how resistant do you think they would be to foreign ant species, and how effectively would they contribute to biotic resistance?

Did you read the studies of the African ant invasion in N Australia? Sounds like native species are not very resistant and the African species is a major threat to both native ants and to species richness of other invertebrates in the vicinity of infestations. What is your interest? Are you looking at ways to fight these infestations by exotic species?

18 hours ago, TheVat said:

Did you read the studies of the African ant invasion in N Australia? Sounds like native species are not very resistant and the African species is a major threat to both native ants and to species richness of other invertebrates in the vicinity of infestations. What is your interest? Are you looking at ways to fight these infestations by exotic species?

There are a few sources to counter your claim such as https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1442-8903.2002.t01-1-00109.x

For the second part of your question, yes, I am looking to enhance or stimulate biotic resistance.

18 hours ago, TheVat said:

Did you read the studies of the African ant invasion in N Australia? Sounds like native species are not very resistant and the African species is a major threat to both native ants and to species richness of other invertebrates in the vicinity of infestations. What is your interest? Are you looking at ways to fight these infestations by exotic species

What makes you think that the native Australian myrmecological are not responding to foreign myrmecological stimuli?

1 hour ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

There are a few sources to counter your claim

I was not making a claim. Attempting to offer help, I mentioned the N Australian study that had earlier been posted, as a starting point. If there are other studies that run counter to that one, like the Queensland research on fire ants that you kindly cited, I am certainly interested.

1 hour ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

What makes you think that the native Australian myrmecological are not responding to foreign myrmecological stimuli?

Where did I say anything like that?? The native ant species may well be responding, and the study I mentioned only said that the response to the exotic species, based on its observations, had not been robust and had not been successful in suppressing the spread of the invasive African species. As far as I know, biotic resistance to exotic species is often weak. Examples of this are numerous, all over the world. Asian carp, Burmese pythons, Zebra mussels, European starlings, cane toads, etc. Ecological communities are often rather delicately balanced, so an invasive species can easily disrupt this balance and take advantage of an opening. A classic example, also from Australia, are feral cats, who have decimated numerous animal species there. Prey species had longterm adaptations, in terms of evading the native predator species - but these adaptations did not work so well with the newly arrived feral cats.

Also, now that I've explained my intentions in my other post, would you mind removing the Downvote? That seems a bit harsh, considering the possibility of a misunderstanding which I tried to point out. Also, here at SFN, we don't usually DV just on the basis of a comment made about a cited study, unless there is a clearcut case of bad faith argument or pseudoscience claims or trolling another member. You can look at our forum guidelines to get a better sense of when the DV usage is more appropriate. Thanks.

Edited April 25Apr 25 by TheVat

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

I was not making a claim. Attempting to offer help, I mentioned the N Australian study that had earlier been posted, as a starting point. If there are other studies that run counter to that one, like the Queensland research on fire ants that you kindly cited, I am certainly interested.

Where did I say anything like that?? The native ant species may well be responding, and the study I mentioned only said that the response to the exotic species, based on its observations, had not been robust and had not been successful in suppressing the spread of the invasive African species. As far as I know, biotic resistance to exotic species is often weak. Examples of this are numerous, all over the world. Asian carp, Burmese pythons, Zebra mussels, European starlings, cane toads, etc. Ecological communities are often rather delicately balanced, so an invasive species can easily disrupt this balance and take advantage of an opening. A classic example, also from Australia, are feral cats, who have decimated numerous animal species there. Prey species had longterm adaptations, in terms of evading the native predator species - but these adaptations did not work so well with the newly arrived feral cats.

Also, now that I've explained my intentions in my other post, would you mind removing the Downvote? That seems a bit harsh, considering the possibility of a misunderstanding which I tried to point out. Also, here at SFN, we don't usually DV just on the basis of a comment made about a cited study, unless there is a clearcut case of bad faith argument or pseudoscience claims or trolling another member. You can look at our forum guidelines to get a better sense of when the DV usage is more appropriate. Thanks.

I've just given you an upvote to cancel it, as it was very obvious to me that a downvote was undeserved.

9 hours ago, TheVat said:

I was not making a claim. Attempting to offer help, I mentioned the N Australian study that had earlier been posted, as a starting point. If there are other studies that run counter to that one, like the Queensland research on fire ants that you kindly cited, I am certainly interested.

Where did I say anything like that?? The native ant species may well be responding, and the study I mentioned only said that the response to the exotic species, based on its observations, had not been robust and had not been successful in suppressing the spread of the invasive African species. As far as I know, biotic resistance to exotic species is often weak. Examples of this are numerous, all over the world. Asian carp, Burmese pythons, Zebra mussels, European starlings, cane toads, etc. Ecological communities are often rather delicately balanced, so an invasive species can easily disrupt this balance and take advantage of an opening. A classic example, also from Australia, are feral cats, who have decimated numerous animal species there. Prey species had longterm adaptations, in terms of evading the native predator species - but these adaptations did not work so well with the newly arrived feral cats.

Also, now that I've explained my intentions in my other post, would you mind removing the Downvote? That seems a bit harsh, considering the possibility of a misunderstanding which I tried to point out. Also, here at SFN, we don't usually DV just on the basis of a comment made about a cited study, unless there is a clearcut case of bad faith argument or pseudoscience claims or trolling another member. You can look at our forum guidelines to get a better sense of when the DV usage is more appropriate. Thanks.

My apologies! Its very hard to click on a small screen sometimes, I will remove it immediately.

8 hours ago, exchemist said:

I've just given you an upvote to cancel it, as it was very obvious to me that a downvote was undeserved.

It was purely accidental.

11 hours ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

It was purely accidental.

No worries. I've done that a couple times myself, just by thumb scrolling on a small tablet.

I will keep my eye out for more papers on stimulating biotic resistance - it's an interesting topic, and especially important to offering alternatives to the use of toxic chemicals or other "scorched earth" methods of extermination.

On 4/26/2025 at 6:36 AM, TheVat said:

No worries. I've done that a couple times myself, just by thumb scrolling on a small tablet.

I will keep my eye out for more papers on stimulating biotic resistance - it's an interesting topic, and especially important to offering alternatives to the use of toxic chemicals or other "scorched earth" methods of extermination.

Ok thank you!

Ok I did do some further research:

One of the primary mechanisms of biotic resistance is interference and resource competition by native ants. Studies show that native Iridomyrmex ants displace invasive Argentine ants at food baits through direct aggressive interactions, effectively limiting the invader's access to resources and territory. Experimental evidence in southeastern Australia confirms that foragers from Iridomyrmex species dominate bait sites, which restricts Argentine ants' spread and establishment in these areas.

The importance of colony size has also been demonstrated; large native colonies of Iridomyrmex purpureus exert strong biotic resistance by maintaining dominance over resources and aggressive exclusion of invaders, which reduces invasive ants' success rates. Condition-specific competition studies revealed that environmental factors modulate competitive performance, but Iridomyrmex species consistently limit Argentine ant success under various abiotic and biotic contexts

BD Hoffmann & WC Saul. (2010). Yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) invasions within undisturbed mainland Australian habitats: no support for biotic resistance hypothesis. In Biological Invasions. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-010-9701-3

AD Rowles & DJ O’Dowd. (2007). Interference competition by Argentine ants displaces native ants: implications for biotic resistance to invasion. In Biological invasions. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-006-9009-5