Rasberry crazy ant

The ant is about 3 mm (or about 1/8 inches) long, thus smaller than the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. It is covered with reddish-brown hairs. Their larvae are plump and hairy, with a specific conformation of mouthparts and unique mandible morphology that allows for precise species identification. The colonies live under stones or piles; they have no centralized nests, beds, or mounds. N. fulva has been a pest in rural and urban areas of Colombia, and South America, where it displaced all other ant species. There, small poultry such as chickens have died of asphyxiation while larger animals, such as cattle, have been attacked around the eyes, nostrils, and hooves. Grasslands have dried out because of the increase in plant-sucking insect pests (hemipterans), which the ants cultivate to feed on the sugary "honeydew" that they excrete. which causes a minute pain that quickly fades. Formic acid was named after the Latin word formica (ant), because it was first distilled from ants in the 17th century. Uniquely, the tawny ant also uses formic acid as an antidote against the venom alkaloids of the fire ant (known as solenopsins). The venom alkaloids of fire ants have been demonstrated to be strongly paralytic against competitor species, thus the tawny crazy ant may have developed a resistance by acid-immobilisation of the venom toxins. Tawny crazy ants were found to displace other ant species in their native Argentina and later the US, including the red imported fire ant. Formic acid as an antidote to fire ant venom In March 2014, researchers concluded that formic acid helped tawny crazy ants survive fire ant venom in ant fights 98% of the time; when the gland ducts were blocked with nail polish in an experiment, crazy ants had only a 48% chance of surviving fights with fire ants. and returns to the fight. This is the first known example of an insect detoxifying another insect's venom, and the first discovery of an ionic liquid in nature which results from mixing of formic acid with venom from S. invicta. How formic acid acts as an antidote against the much more toxic fire ant's venom is unknown. Fire ant venom is a mixture of toxic alkaloids and proteins that presumably enable the alkaloids to enter rival ants' cells. Each alkaloid in the fire ant's venom, including solenopsin, has a six-membered heterocyclic ring with fat-soluble side chains. The researchers who discovered the antidote property of formic acid in crazy ants speculate that the formic acid denatures the proteins in fire ant venom. Another possibility is that the nitrogen on an alkaloid's heterocyclic ring is protonated, rendering the ionic molecule less lipophilic, thus less likely to penetrate the tawny crazy ant's cells. ==Diet==

N. fulva eats liquids, including plant nectar and insect honeydew. Calcium, sodium, and potassium are very important to N. fulva: Higher environmental potassium decreased abundance, and higher potassium + sodium decreased abundance even more so. Meanwhile, higher calcium increased abundance. ==Effects on electrical equipment==

It is unclear why colonies of Nylanderia fulva are attracted to electrical equipment. Infestations of Nylanderia fulva in electrical equipment can cause short circuits, sometimes because the ants chew through insulation and wiring. If an ant is electrocuted, it can release an alarm pheromone upon death, which causes other ants to rush over and search for attackers. If a large enough number of ants gather, it may short out systems. Colonies of Nylanderia fulva are likely attracted to electrical equipment because the warm, confined space provides an attractive nesting place. ==Rate of spread==

The Texas A&M University research extension service quotes the annual rate of spread by ground migration as about 240 and 360 m per year in neighborhoods and industrial areas, respectively, and 207 m/year in rural landscapes hence spreading more slowly than fire ants. in August 2012 in Port Allen, Louisiana, and in 2013 in Georgia. ==Range in the United States==

The earliest record of N. fulva presence in the US is from Brownsville, Texas, in 1938. By the early 2000s, the ants spread across the southeastern portion of Texas As of 2012, the ants have established colonies in all states of the Gulf Coast of the United States. N. fulva establishment is limited to some southern parts of the country. ==Control in the US==

The ants are not attracted to ordinary ant baits, and are not controlled by over-the-counter pesticides, and are harder to fully exterminate than many other species because their colonies have multiple queens. Its use is currently restricted to infested counties. In 2015, the microsporidian parasite Myrmecomorba nylanderiae was found to be a pathogen of the tawny crazy ant. In March 2022, further research indicated that this unicellular fungus may be an effective biological control for the tawny ant. == See also ==