Argentine ants are an invasive species, and are harmful because they are displacing native ants. (The danger with Argentine ants is that they all recognize each other as part of the “same colony” and so team up as an invading force.)
Ant species are pretty good markers of biodiversity - you can use the number of different species in a square meter as a kind of measurement tool. As far as the roles they play - complicated as shit and depends on the species. Some have complicated interactions with aphids, some do things like farm different kinds of fungus which might make different nutrients available at the micro biome level. It really depends on the ecosystem we are looking at - when I worked in an ant lab we were looking at their interactions with the prairie and micronutrients. Kurzegaszt’s ant series is a pretty awesome exploration of the ways a bunch of different species wage wars, impact the environment…
Argentine ants are an invasive species, and are harmful because they are displacing native ants. (The danger with Argentine ants is that they all recognize each other as part of the “same colony” and so team up as an invading force.)
Ant species are pretty good markers of biodiversity - you can use the number of different species in a square meter as a kind of measurement tool. As far as the roles they play - complicated as shit and depends on the species. Some have complicated interactions with aphids, some do things like farm different kinds of fungus which might make different nutrients available at the micro biome level. It really depends on the ecosystem we are looking at - when I worked in an ant lab we were looking at their interactions with the prairie and micronutrients. Kurzegaszt’s ant series is a pretty awesome exploration of the ways a bunch of different species wage wars, impact the environment…
Argentine ants are wrecking all of this.