NYC’s Rapidly Spreading Invasive Ant, The ‘ManhattAnt,’ Finally Identified
The discovery of an unidentified ant species around NYC back in 2011 resulted in a clever nickname for the invasive insect, known as ManhattAnt. Yet even 13 years later, the ManhattAnt has yet to be formally identified until now, thanks to a recent article within the peer-reviewed journal Biological Invasions.
So why did it take so many years to identify the ant? Well insect identification can be tricky due to the sheer diversity that exists. Yet, as the ManhattAnt continued to stump experts, it continued to spread. And just five years following its discovery, the ManhattAnt became the most common ant found in NYC parks and highly urban habitats. Today, the ManhattAnt is known as Lasius emarginatus.
Through genetic and morphological analysis, experts were able to trace the ManhattAnt’s native roots back to central and southern Europe.
The aforementioned article found that the ManhattAnt has expanded a rate of 2 km (1.2 miles)/year between 2011 and 2023. Residents of New Jersey and Long Island can now expect to see the Lasius emarginatus in their region. If the species continues to expand across the northeast at its current rate it could eventually spread from Massachusetts to Georgia.
Though invasive ants tend to be supercolonial (meaning the nests of a species are widely spread out but they’re all socially connected) the ManhattAnts haven’t been found to display any supercolonality.
New York City is no stranger to invasive species, as we’re currently still battling lanternflies, joro spiders and now giant hogweed.
Cities and urban areas are more susceptible to invasive species because they are epicenters for trade and travel. And with few to no policies in place to monitor such issues, invasive species are oftentimes already at pest status when detected.
The ManhattAnts could negatively impact the ecosystem with harm to other local insects as they’ve been observed to be quite aggressive towards other ants, and invade peoples homes and apartments.
Learn more about the latest research on ManhattAnts here.
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