Kin recognition behaviors and genetic diversity of invasive ant, Linepithema humile in Japan and Argentina Kazuki,S.(Hokkaido Univ. Education) et al.

In this study, we evince that the relationship between genetic background and aggression of Argentine ant of great incursion invasive species. Although this ant is not harmful in northern Argentina, it has great impact on native soil organisms fauna of invasive area because of its highly reproducibility and aggressiveness. Argentine ant has been introduced North America, Europa, and Japan, and formed of a huge unicolony. Although the kin relatedness within unicolony was nearly 0, they have never shown any aggressive behaviors. In Japan, Argentine ant has been introduced in Hatsukaichi (Hiroshima) since 1993 and it is expanding in central Japan. In this study, we estimated kin relatednesses of introduced Japanese populations using 8 microsatellite markers and a multilocus DNA marker. As a result, the kin relatednesses were nearly 0 by microsatellite marker and in early established area using multilocus DNA marker. However it reached gradually 0.75 with nest established ages using multilocus DNA marker. Also we conducted direct observations and indicated highly aggressive behaviors between some colonies. We would like to discuss relationship between genetic background and aggressiveness with a data of native area of Argentine ant.