11-10-2014, 01:34 PM
I doubt this is true. Hybridization requires a male from another VERY similar species to mate with the queen. Granted, LFA have tens of thousands of queens so that makes it somewhat more probable, but LFA destroy other ant species, not welcome them to mate with their royalty. Not to mention, there are no known similar species in Hawaii. LFA are the only known ant species that always uses both sexual and asexual reproduction. That just about shuts down any chance of hybridization- even if 100% of the LFA males died for some reason and another male ant species moved in and was somehow able to masquerade itself as LFA, the queen would continue laying clone eggs of herself and those would hatch and kill any hybrids in the colony.
The last bit that makes the realtor theory less plausible is that they hybrid don't sting? How did they outcompete the ones that do? Sounds like they are trying to sell more houses in LFA territory. "No really, these are the GOOD LFA."
The only likelihood of the LFA supremacy changing is if something substantially more horrible than LFA come in to displace them, like the "crazy ants" that are pushing the regular fire ants out of parts of Florida and Texas. They might not sting, but they are omnivores that eat everything, including electronics.
The last bit that makes the realtor theory less plausible is that they hybrid don't sting? How did they outcompete the ones that do? Sounds like they are trying to sell more houses in LFA territory. "No really, these are the GOOD LFA."
The only likelihood of the LFA supremacy changing is if something substantially more horrible than LFA come in to displace them, like the "crazy ants" that are pushing the regular fire ants out of parts of Florida and Texas. They might not sting, but they are omnivores that eat everything, including electronics.