DOI: https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_010:039

Open Access: CC BY 4.0

Author:

Wetterer, J.K.



Year: 2007

Title:

Paratrechina pubens (Forel, 1893) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a candidate for the plague ant of 19th century Bermuda



Journal: Myrmecological News

Volume: 23

Pages: 39-40

Type of contribution: Original Article

Supplementary material: No

Abstract:

Previously overlooked specimens of the hairy crazy ant, Paratrechina pubens (Forel, 1893), collected in 1905, represent the only known record of this species from Bermuda. Published accounts of an unidentified ant that underwent a great population explosion in 19th century Bermuda match the general appearance of P. pubens, which is currently undergoing a similar outbreak on St. Croix, Us Virgin Islands. Thus, P. pubens appears to be a good candidate for the plague ant of 19th century Bermuda. It will be interesting to track whether P. pubens becomes a major longterm pest on St. Croix or whether the populations collapse, as apparently happened in Bermuda.

Open access, licensed under CC BY 4.0. © 2007 The Author(s).



Key words:

Atlantic islands, Bermuda, exotic ants, Paratrechina pubens, pest ants.



Publisher: The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics

ISSN: Print: 1994-4136 - Online: 1997-3500