A Review of the Biology, Ecology and Behavior of Velvety Tree Ants of North America

Abstract

Ants belonging to the genus Liometopum are regionally distributed across North America, Europe and Asia. L. apiculatum Mayr, L. luctuosum Wheeler, and L. occidentale Emery are found in western North America and are referred to as velvety tree ants. Very little is known about the biology of these species, but they are similar. They are typically associated with trees and shrubs and are frequently found tending hemipterans. All three species are are easily disturbed and and resort to highly aggressive behaviors including the use of strong alarm odors. The following review is intended to summarize the literature regarding the biology and control of these species. Special emphasis has been given to factors that might be important in their control and gaps in our current knowledge.

Producción de la hormiga escamolera (Liometopum apiculatum Mayr 1870) y su hábitat en el Altiplano Potosino-Zacatecano, México.

“…La cantidad de hormigas de L. apiculatum puede alcanzar los 250 000 individuos por nido (Hoey-Chamberlain et al, 2013); sin embargo, un incremento excesivo de la población puede causar un decremento en la calidad del nido, bajando su productividad. La presente investigación solo evaluó aspectos básicos como la calidad del nido y su rendimiento sobre la relación del número de hormigas y sustratos de anidación con la calidad del nido.…”

Producción de la hormiga escamolera (Liometopum apiculatum Mayr 1870) y su hábitat en el Altiplano Potosino-Zacatecano, México.

“…This was confirmed through the analysis of the deviations from what was expected under standardized independencies of Chi-square, which recorded a strong association between a very bad quality of the nest with a scarce amount of ants (3.47) and a very good quality of the nest with a regular amount of ants (2.06) (p=0.001999) ( Table 3). The amount of L. apiculatum ants can reach 250 000 individuals per nest (Hoey-Chamberlain et al, 2013); however, an excessive increase of the population can cause a decrease in the nest quality, decreasing its productivity. This study only evaluated basic aspects such as the quality of the nest and its yield on the relationship of the number of ants and nesting substrates with the nest quality.…”

“…Sin embargo, se observó que L. apiculatum produjo más escamol en el sustrato "nopal" y que esta especie pudiera seleccionar al nopal preferentemente para anidar, así como lo hacen otras para seleccionar sus sustratos forrajeros (Stradling, 1978;Rojas-Fernández, 2001;Cortes-Pérez et al, 2003;Pirk et al, 2004) -Fernández, 2001;Cortes-Pérez et al, 2003;Pirk et al, 2004), and nest in their different habitats. It is quite likely that Liometopum apiculatum presents a similar pattern when associating to habitats with rosetophyll shrubs in arid and semiarid zones of México (Esparza-Frausto et al, 2008;Cruz-Labana et al, 2014); however, they also seem to have plasticity on the use of different ecosystems as other authors report (Ramos-Elorduy et al, 1986;Velasco-Corona et al 2007;Hoey-Chamberlain et al, 2013).…”

“…and yucca (Yucca spp.) PRODUCCIÓN DE LA HORMIGA ESCAMOLERA Y SU HÁBITAT EN EL ALTIPLANO POTOSINO-ZACATECANO, Es muy probable que Liometopum apiculatum presente un patrón similar al asociarse a hábitats con matorrales rosetófilos en zonas áridas y semiáridas de México (Esparza-Frausto et al, 2008;Cruz-Labana et al, 2014); sin embargo, también parece tener una plasticidad sobre el uso de diferentes ecosistemas como lo reportan otros autores (Ramos-Elorduy et al, 1986;Velasco-Corona et al 2007;Hoey-Chamberlain et al, 2013).…”

Spatial and temporal partitioning and tree preference in California woodland ants

“…Several of the ant species, including F. moki , L. occidentale , and P. imparis , have been described as dominant based on bait assays (9,10,17,26,33). Though we did not offer baits, we frequently observed these species foraging together, which does not support a dominance-discovery tradeoff (34).…”