A major challenge of invasion biology is the development of a predictive framework that prevents new invasions. This is inherently difficult because different biological characteristics are important at the different stages of invasion: opportunity/transport, establishment and spread. Here, we draw from recent research on a variety of taxa to examine the evolutionary causes and consequences of biological invasions. The process...

Some species of ants possess an unusual form of social organization in which aggression among nests is absent. This type of social organization, called unicoloniality, has been studied in only a handful of species and its evolutionary origins remain unclear. To date, no study has examined behavioural and genetic patterns at points of contact between the massive supercolonies that characterize unicoloniality. Since interactions...

Wolbachia pipientis is a maternally transmitted bacterium that often alters the life history of its insect host to maximize transmission to subsequent generations. Here we report on the frequency and distribution of Wolbachia infection in a widespread invasive species, the Argentine ant ( Linepithema humile ). We screened 1175 individual Argentine ants from 89 nests on five continents and several islands, including numerous lo...

Ants are among the most widespread and damaging of introduced species. Many invasive ants share a suite of characteristics that facilitate their introduction, establishment, and subsequent range expansion. One feature of particular importance is the ability to form numerically large, ecologically dominant colonies. We review the population biology of invasive ants, focusing on the role of sociality and colony structure in thei...

The Argentine ant ( Linepithema humile ) is a damaging invasive species that has become established in many Mediterranean‐type ecosystems worldwide. To identify likely sources of introduced populations we examined the relationships among native Linepithema populations from Argentina and Brazil and introduced populations of L. humile using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data and nuclear microsatellite allele frequencies. T...