USDA-ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, 1600/1700 Southwest 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Science. 2011 Feb 25;331(6020):1066-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1198734.
The fire ant Solenopsis invicta is a significant pest that was inadvertently introduced into the southern United States almost a century ago and more recently into California and other regions of the world. An assessment of genetic variation at a diverse set of molecular markers in 2144 fire ant colonies from 75 geographic sites worldwide revealed that at least nine separate introductions of S. invicta have occurred into newly invaded areas and that the main southern U.S. population is probably the source of all but one of these introductions. The sole exception involves a putative serial invasion from the southern United States to California to Taiwan. These results illustrate in stark fashion a severe negative consequence of an increasingly massive and interconnected global trade and travel system.
火蚁 Solenopsis invicta 是一种重要的害虫，大约一个世纪前被无意中引入美国南部，最近又传入加利福尼亚和世界其他地区。在对来自全球 75 个地理地点的 2144 个火蚁群体的一系列不同分子标记的遗传变异进行评估后发现，至少有 9 次将 S. invicta 分别引入了新的入侵地区，而美国南部的主要种群可能是除了其中一次引入以外的所有引入的来源。唯一的例外涉及从美国南部到加利福尼亚再到台湾的假设连续入侵。这些结果鲜明地说明了日益庞大和相互关联的全球贸易和旅行系统所带来的严重负面影响。
