The effect of Tawny crazy ants on the abundance of aboveground insect abundance in Texas

This data is to accompany the paper: Imported crazy ants displace native ants and drive aboveground insect abundance in a grassland green food web
Abstract: A dominant recent invasive ant, Nylanderia fulva, is spreading across the Southeastern United States, but little is known about how this invasive ant may affect insect communities. We located a N. fulva invasion front in Goliad, TX to determine how this invasive ant affects the abundance and composition of other ants and green-food web arthropods in a disturbed Gulf Coast prairie. We found that within a half a year, N. fulva reaches numerical dominance. Areas where N. fulva were abundant were dominated mostly by N. fulva and the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, while areas where N. fulva were scarce was dominated by a mixture of native ants and S. invicta. We also found that in areas where N. fulva were abundant, there was a significantly greater abundance of honeydew-producing hemiptera from the Cicadellidae family, which is a likely factor aiding in the dominance and further spread of N. fulva. Additionally, areas were N. fulva were abundant had tended to have fewer grasshoppers from the Melanoplinae subfamily, which are likely decreasing in abundance due to direct predation and fleeing N. fulva abundant areas. Lastly, we found that Tettigoniidae nymphs were more abundant in N. fulva abundant areas. Our results support growing evidence that N. fulva can negatively affect the abundance and composition of insects in the brown- and green-food web, and strongly suggests that this invasive ant can have lasting effects on ecosystems it invades.