Yet another alien: a second species of Lepisiota spreading across the Canary Islands, Spain (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

The Canary Islands are a biologically important archipelago hosting many unique species, whose myrmecofauna is peculiarly rich in both endemic and introduced species. Lepisiota frauenfeldi cfr. kantarensis Forel, 1911 is reported for the first time from Fuerteventura and Tenerife. It is the second species of Lepisiota introduced in the archipelago in the last few years, and one of the few documented cases in which Lepisiota frauenfeldi (Mayr, 1855) s.l. acts as a successful tramp species. Comments are also given on taxonomic problems involving the L. frauenfeldi-group and related taxa. Finally, new additional information and comments are presented on the distribution of other alien ants species from the Canary Islands [Lasius neglectus Van Loon, Boomsma & Andrásfalvy, 1990, Lepisiota capensis (Mayr, 1862 and Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802)].

Plagiolepis alluaudi Emery, 1894, a globally spreading exotic ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) newly recorded from Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

“…As the species was not detected in previous surveys of ants on Teneriffe (e.g. Stitz 1917;Wheeler 1927;Barquín 1981;Espadaler and Bernal 2003;Schifani et al 2018), this may suggest a rather recent introduction event, potentially with plant material (Smith 1957;Wetterer 2014;Blatrix et al 2018). Because P. alluaudi is widespread in tropical and subtropical islands and commonly occurs in greenhouses around the world, it is at present not possible to determine the source of the population in Tenerife.…”

“…Being an oceanic island in a subtropical climate, diverse endemic biota have evolved on Tenerife for example in plants and beetles (Emerson et al 1999;Juan et al 2000). Regarding ants, endemic species likely account for over 30% of the Canary Islands myrmecofauna (Schifani et al 2018). Competition between exotic and native species is likely and can have far-reaching consequences for native biota.…”

“…The present record of P. alluaudi is the first record for the Canary Islands. As the species combines a small body size, opportunistic foraging and polygyny, which are all traits facilitating spread of exotic ants (McGlynn 1999;Wetterer 2014), it is not unlikely that P. alluaudi will soon be found on other islands of the Canary Archipelago (see also Espadaler and Fernández 2014;Schifani et al 2018).…”

“…Realized distributions of exotic ant species are not static and new locality records of exotic ants are constantly being reported (e.g. Gotzek et al 2012;Guénard et al 2018;Schifani et al 2018;Schifani 2019).…”

“…At least 50 native ant species (including subspecies) are known from the Canary Islands (Wheeler 1927;Barquín 1981;Högmo 2003;Espadaler 2007;Guénard et al 2017), of which the majority also occurs on Tenerife. Like on other oceanic islands with a favorable climate, non-native ants are now common in the Canary Islands and at least 15 exotic ant species have been recorded from Tenerife (Espadaler and Bernal 2003;Espadaler and Fernández 2014;Schifani et al 2018), among them the globally invasive Linepithema humile (Mayr, 1868) and Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802). Exotic ants continue to be introduced to Tenerife, as the recent finding of Lepisiota frauenfeldi kantarensis (Forel, 1911) exemplifies (Schifani et al 2018), and are currently estimated to account for up to a third of the ant fauna of the entire archipelago.…”