Aix-Marseille Université (Paul Cézanne), Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale (UMR CNRS/IRD), Université Paul Cézanne, Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4, France.
Mol Ecol. 2012 Aug;21(16):4106-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05668.x. Epub 2012 Jul 9.
In their invasive ranges, Argentine ant populations often form one geographically vast supercolony, genetically and chemically uniform within which there is no intraspecific aggression. Here we present regional patterns of intraspecific aggression, cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) and population genetics of 18 nesting sites across Corsica and the French mainland. Aggression tests confirm the presence of a third European supercolony, the Corsican supercolony, which exhibits moderate to high levels of aggression, depending on nesting sites, with the Main supercolony, and invariably high levels of aggression with the Catalonian supercolony. The chemical analyses corroborated the behavioural data, with workers of the Corsican supercolony showing moderate differences in CHCs compared to workers of the European Main supercolony and strong differences compared to workers of the Catalonian supercolony. Interestingly, there were also clear genetic differences between workers of the Catalonian supercolony and the two other supercolonies at both nuclear and mitochondrial markers, but only very weak genetic differentiation between nesting sites of the Corsican and Main supercolonies (F(ST) = 0.06). A detailed comparison of the genetic composition of supercolonies also revealed that, if one of the last two supercolonies derived from the other, it is the Main supercolony that derived from the Corsican supercolony rather than the reverse. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of conducting more qualitative and quantitative analyses of the level of aggression between supercolonies, which has to be correlated with genetic and chemical data.
在其入侵范围内，阿根廷蚁种群通常形成一个地理上广阔的超级大群体，在这个超级大群体中，遗传和化学上是统一的，没有种内攻击。在这里，我们呈现了科西嘉岛和法国大陆 18 个巢穴的种内攻击、表皮碳氢化合物 (CHC) 和种群遗传学的区域模式。攻击测试证实了第三个欧洲超级大群体——科西嘉超级大群体的存在，该超级大群体表现出中等至高水平的攻击性，具体取决于巢穴，与主要超级大群体相比，与加泰罗尼亚超级大群体相比，攻击性始终很高。化学分析与行为数据相符，科西嘉超级大群体的工蚁的 CHC 与欧洲主要超级大群体的工蚁相比存在中等差异，与加泰罗尼亚超级大群体的工蚁相比存在强烈差异。有趣的是，在核和线粒体标记物上，加泰罗尼亚超级大群体的工蚁与另外两个超级大群体之间也存在明显的遗传差异，但科西嘉和主要超级大群体的巢穴之间只有非常微弱的遗传分化（F(ST) = 0.06）。对超级大群体遗传组成的详细比较还表明，如果最后两个超级大群体中的一个是由另一个衍生而来的，那么是主要超级大群体是从科西嘉超级大群体衍生而来的，而不是相反。总的来说，这些发现强调了对超级大群体之间的攻击水平进行更多定性和定量分析的重要性，这必须与遗传和化学数据相关联。
