Speciation in American HIFA and the implications of that

Nature Talk
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So in the United States there are 3 distinct (well…) populations of Invasive “imported” Solenopsis fire ants. These include the original invasive known as Solenopsis richteri: BIFA, the newer and more dominant Solenopsis invicta: RIFA. and the most recent development: HIFA, the Hybrid Imported Fire Ant.

Since I found out about HIFA a while ago, It has become one of the most interesting things I’ve been following recently. Part of this is due to the fact that these hybrids are in fact fertile, which sets them apart from a lot of other introduced hybrids, and another part of this comes from a personal theory that HIFA will eventually speciate, driven by it’s more resilient cold tolerance, and BIFA’s retreating range. And it brought the thought to me: If HIFA does in fact speciate, would it be considered invasive or endemic. While it might act endemic or be a pest, unlike it’s parents it would not have a place to have migrated from, making it technically endemic to the US. Another question that sprouted from that is: would attempts to eradicate this new species (assuming it does speciate) count as purposefully killing off a species?

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A few more examples of this have also happened! Oxford Ragwort, Senecio squalidus is one of the most famous proposed examples (a new hybrid species arising within a range where the parent species are introduced). Scottish Monkeyflower (Erythranthe peregrina) is another example. It then becomes a philosophical question whether to count them as “native” or “non-native”.

I would imagine in the case of the fire ant, the hybrid lineage will still be counted as invasive and not given any protections.

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Previous discussions on this subject if you’re interested:

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Thank you! I’ll make sure to check those two out.

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I have an entire project for this exact situation. I call these taxa “Anthrodemics” https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/anthrodemics