"Frank Sinatra famously sang that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And that’s just what worries some scientists who have been studying a particular species of ant.

This ant, nicknamed the ManhattAnt, first turned up in the city in 2011. Back then, no one knew where it came from, and for years it was mostly ignored.

But this ant has flourished in the Big Apple, so much so that it’s now vying with a species called the pavement ant for being the most common ant in the city, according to a report in the science journal Biological Invasions.

What’s more, ManhattAnts have started to spread beyond their namesake island, expanding their territory at a rate of about a mile a year."

Nell Greenfieldboyce reports for NPR August 14, 2024. [2]