Definitions:
Feces - digestive waste, or in other words, poop.
Lesions - abnormal tissue from an organism; an injury.
Summary:
In Indonesia, there are yellow crazy ants (image shown above) colonizing there. These ants get their name from their color, and the erratic movements they make when walking. Recently, they have been driving out native ants and taking control of the ecosystem. However, the native Sulawesi toad turns out to be a devourer of ants, even invading ones. "During a week of toad abundance on Sulawesi farms, tests plots hopping with toads had as little as one-third of the invasive ant populations found on plots where fencing kept toads out, Wanger and his colleagues report in a paper released online the week of September 6 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B."
Discussion
These yellow crazy ants are a big issue right now, for they are disrupting ecosystems everywhere, killing off native ant species. The native ants of Indonesia have been shown to help cacao pests away on plantations. But if the yellow crazy ant keeps driving on, they will be pushed into a different area, not being able to help the cacao plantations. Luckily, the Sulawesi toad feasts on these ants, keeping the population in check. So, the toads indirectly help keep cacao plantations safe from pests. Because of their importance to the agriculture and economy in Sulawesi, the local people are trying to conserve the amphibian.
Questions:
1. Are the Sulawesi toads endangered? Is that why they are featured in this article?
2. When did the yellow crazy ants start colonizing in the area and how many are there?
Sources:
Works Cited:
Milius, Susan. “Not in This Toad’s Backyard: Native Indonesian Amphibian Takes on Invading Ants.” ScienceNews. N.p., 7 Sept. 2010. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. <http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63119/title/Not_in_this_toad%E2%80%99s_backyard>.
