The effect of alien predatory ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on Hawaiian endemic spiders (Araneae: Tetragnathidae)

Author:

Gillespie, Rosemary G., Reimer, Neil

Title:

The effect of alien predatory ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on Hawaiian endemic spiders (Araneae: Tetragnathidae)

Periodical:

Pacific Science

Year:

1993

Volume:

47

Pages:

21-33

Subject:

Ants Alien species

Summary:

The fauna of the Hawaiian Islands is characterized by spectacular species radiations with high levels of endemism, which is coupled with an extreme vulnerability to invasion by alien species. Of all alien invertebrate predators, ants are most notorious in their effect on native Hawaiian biota with the major threats to native fauna being the bigheaded ant (Pheidole megacephala), the longlegged ant (Anoplolepis longipes), the Argentine ant (Iridomyrmex humilis), the fire ants (Solenopsis geminata), and possibly the S. Papuana Emery). However, in the Hawaiian Islands, the endemic Hawaiian spiders, of the genus Tetragnatha, is represented by a lineage of more than 60 taxa. Before 1991, nine species had been described with the description out of 16 additional species that had been just previously been completed. This study examined the interaction between ants and endemic Hawaiian spiders of genus Tetragnatha. Here, interactions between the spiders and the two species of ants, P. megacephala and A. longipes, were conducted in the laboratory. The results indicated that the spiders were very vulnerable to attack by ants.

Label:

Insects - Ants

URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/1744

Date:

1993

Collection:

Periodicals