Yellow crazy ant

Anoplolepis gracilipes is one of the largest invasive ant species in the world. It has invaded ecosystems from Hawaii to Seychelles, and formed supercolonies on Christmas Island. Crazy ants get much of their food requirements from scale insects, especially scale insects that release a serious amount of energy.

About Yellow crazy ant in brief

Summary Yellow crazy antAnoplolepis gracilipes is one of the largest invasive ant species in the world. It has invaded ecosystems from Hawaii to Seychelles, and formed supercolonies on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Crazy ants get much of their food requirements from scale insects, especially scale insects that release a serious amount of energy. The species has been known to attack and dismember invertebrates such as small isopods, mcs, arachnids, land crabs and insects. It can cause significant damage to native biological diversity, and strong quarantine measures are encouraged to keep it from spreading to new localities. The yellow crazy ant’s natural habitat is the moist tropical lowlands of Southeast Asia, and surrounding areas and islands in theIndian and Pacific Oceans. It is on a list of \”one hundred of the world’s worst invasive species\” formulated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) The species is widespread across the tropics, and populations are especially dense in the Pacific region. A. gracILipes has been described as a “scavenging predator” and has a broad diet, a characteristic of many invasive species. It consumes a wide variety of foods, including grains, seeds, arods, and vertebrate corpses, including vertebrates.

Like all ants, A. gracillipes requires a protein-rich source of food for the queen to lay eggs and lay eggs for the workers to lay. Studies indicate that crazy ants rely so much on insects that scarcity of them can actually limit the population growth of the ant population. The ant is most infamous for causing the ecological “meltdown’ of Christmas Island. It moves as much as 400 m a year in SeYchelles. A survey on. Christmas Island, however, yielded an average spreading speed of three meters a day, the equivalent of one kilometer a year. The ants can be distinguished from Leptomyrmex by the presence of an acidopore. Although several invasive species of Pheidole can also be slender-bodied with long legs and long antennal scapes, they can be separated from A.  gracllipes by their two-segmented waists. Several species of invasive ants belonging to the genera Camponotus and Paratrechina can appear similar to A. Gracillipis. Although widespread across. the Pacific, A Gracilipis can causesignificant damage tonative biological diversity. It needs a protein rich source of protein for the queens to lay Eggs and lay Eggs.