Argentine ant could kill horn lizard

2001/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ekologia

The natural habitats of the bravo male (Phynosoma family) are the western coast of the United States and Mexico. Your favorite dish is ants, but don't think they eat any ant that you put on par. It's a bit of moofin and only likes home ants.

Therefore, given the scarcity of these ants, the population of shrimp lizard decreases considerably. This is the case of Argentine ants that colonize areas inhabited by lizards. The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) is an invasive species whose pests destroy the crops of California and its environment. They form supercolonies and overcome and eliminate native species.

Over the past three years, University of California biologist Andrew Suarez and other scientists have worked on the development of the branch lizard census of various points in Southern California. As they have explained, in areas where there are only Argentine ants, newborn lizards lose weight and die a short time later. Even adult lizards, if they move to the territory in which only these ants are found, bend slowly and eventually die.