Research article Community level impacts of an ant invader and food mediated coexistence

Abstract. Ant invasions exert a range of effects on recipient communities, from displacement of particular species to more complex community disruption. While species loss has been recorded for a number of invasion events, a little examined aspect of these invasions is the mechanisms for coexistencewith resident ant species. The yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes (Smith), is considered one of the worlds worst ant invaders and has recently undergone rapid population growth in Tokelau. We surveyed the ground-dwelling ant fauna in two plots on each of five invaded and three uninvaded islands across two atolls in Tokelau to examine commun-ity characteristics of the ant fauna in areas with and without yellow crazy ants. We also used three types of food bait (tuna, jam and peanut butter) to experimentall