Yesterday I awoke to find my depressed cat gloomily staring at a trail ... make that a carpeting of Southern California's bane; Argentinian ants swarming her food. To those not familiar with these little ants, they are a terrible pest in kitchens throughout the Los Angeles area and this is for a biological nuance the exhibit. Linepithema humile occur in South Africa, Europe, Australia, Japan and The US but originated in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Southern Brazil, and in 2009 it was discovered that these little ants are part of a super colony spanning from Japan to the Americas and that because of extreme genetic similarities their hydro-carbons which are used by ants to identify enemy ant colonies (such as the same species but a competitor for a clumped food-source say a chunk of candy-bar) were the same between colonies. Thus, separate colonies of Argentinian ants recognize each other as 'kin'. This means that instead of attacking neighboring colonies they join forces as a 'family unit.' Indeed, they join forces and harass innocent cats and soil the previously clean and well-functioning kitchen of many an innocent resident.
They do not just harass humans, these ants are also blamed for the decline of horned lizards in Southern California. While conducting what has become a nearly ritualistic 'wiping out of the ant-attack' which involves several trail washing bouts followed by waiting for them to be convinced the item of interest is truly gone before replacing my cat's food now sitting in a moat she is clearly intimidated by, I contemplated what pay-back might these ants... i.e. what animals eat ants. I will be honest, I really truly like ants and respect them as some of the most interesting animals to embrace sociality. But really... what might keep these little ants in check before they re-group and plan their next attack?
Indeed many mammals have specialized diets focused entirely on what to me seems a non-appetizing fare. These include ant-eaters, pangolins, aardvarks and well I suspect you saw this one coming: bats! Yes bats.
Some bats, I will assume some very desperate ones at that, eat ants. In an article by Eran Levin, Yoram Yom-Tov and Anat Barnea published in Naturwissenschaften in 2008 it was noted that in Israel, female Greater mouse-tailed bats (Rhinopoma microphyllum) are able to 'afford' the expensive task of lactation by adding ants to their diets during periods of ant swarms!
(Ant swarms occur when female and male ants hatch and leave their natal nests to mate and for the female to find a new location to establish a colony). During these times of plentiful ants up to 90% of the bats diets include these unsavory treats. Perhaps my favorite part of the article was the pitiful photo of a bat with an dis-articulated ant heat stuck to it's lip (below right).
(Ant swarms occur when female and male ants hatch and leave their natal nests to mate and for the female to find a new location to establish a colony). During these times of plentiful ants up to 90% of the bats diets include these unsavory treats. Perhaps my favorite part of the article was the pitiful photo of a bat with an dis-articulated ant heat stuck to it's lip (below right).
Mouse-tailed bats in a colony (photo form Arkive) So if i were to suggest a timely sci-fi B movie, (of better quality relative to 'THEM' pictured above, which I must say is the most boring 'attack of the killer....(fill in blank but make sure it is larger than usual and relentless)' movie, which is especially surprising considering that THEM features giant killer-ants which seems like a winning plot-line) it would involve mutant bats released from a sealed cave that opened during a recent earthquake. These bats would wipe-out the Argentinian super colony of ants of Southern California or at least keep the kitchens and cat food bowls of residents ant-free!
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