Patrick Milligan has discovered that a species of invasive ants are wiping out the local ants and plant life in Kenya. The ants are spread through human actions such as constructing new buildings. The paper was published in Ecology Letters.

“Big-headed ants were absolutely thrashing the native insect community in three different conservancies in Laikipia,” Milligan said. “I noticed that many of these whistling-thorn acacias had leaves that just looked drab, limp, or damaged, and it sparked the idea that this invasion was killing off enough influential insect species to possibly cause changes in the plants.”

• Patrick Milligan