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| Photograph by R.H. Scheffrahn, University of Florida |
I woke up and read two interesting news articles.
The articles noted that "bigheaded ants", which presumably are Pheidole megacephala, have slowly been taking over south florida and pushing aside the usual fire ants (Solenopsis invicta).
In a way, this is not very surprising. The status of P. megacephala as a pest ant in or
near structures in that region rose from the 7th spot in 1995 (Klotz et al, 1995) to the top
spot by 2007 (Warner and Scheffrahn, 2007).
It was also interesting that when I traveled to the state in 2018 to survey Key West, both of the two hotels I stayed in (one in Marathon in the Florida Keys, the other in Homestead, which is south of Miami) had P. megacephala colony clusters in them. I had found that a very remarkable coincidence at the time, but perhaps I should not have been that surprised. When I traveled to Fort Lauderdale earlier this month I also easily found the species in an urban park (I was only in the city for one day), where it and S. invicta have co-existed since at least the 1980s.
The cause of this upsurge in the species is not known, although Warner and Scheffrahn in 2007 stated it might have been because of new plantings of trees to replace those damaged due to hurricanes in that area.
Another possibility that comes to mind is that the climate in that state may be slowly changing to better accommodate the species, which is normally constrained by abiotic factors. P. megacephala prefers moisture and warmth, and is easily desiccated.
As an aside, it's kinda annoying that the ant they show in one video is not the right species, but I guess they had to show a larger ant for the cameras (even the majors in P. megacephala are small at 4 mm or less). Fortunately, the other article's video had the right species *smh*.
The two articles:
Step aside, fire ants, there’s a new, big-headed, six-legged female sheriff in town
'Bigheaded' ants are invading South Florida
