Genetic trick makes black crazy ants adapted for conquest

The black crazy ant has conquered the world. From its native ranges in Asia and Africa, it has spread across six continents and lives in almost 120 nations. It is arguably the most widespread ant on the planet. It spreads readily for many reasons, but Morgan Pearcy from the University of Lausanne has found a new and important one –a sexual secret behind the crazy ant’s crazy success. The black (or longhorn) crazy ant, so named for its distinctive, jerky movements, hitchhikes aboard human transport networks. Any vehicle from a jumbo jet to a cargo vessel can carry a queen to a new site, where she can set up a new colony. That’s fine for a few generations but after some time, you would expect the burgeoning invasion to run headlong into the problem of inbreeding. If all the ants in a new area are descended from a handful of ...