Anty Venom

摘要

Crouched in a weedy Texas field one hot and humid October morning, ecologist Edward LeBrun watched a battle unfold between two aggressive ant species. A group of tawny crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva), upstart newcomers to the southern United States from South America, was trying to steal food - dead crickets - from hundreds of red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta). The red fire ants, also originally from South America but common throughout the southern U.S. for almost a century, have venom so deadly that other ants rarely dare to attack them. "[It] looked like suicide," says LeBrun.