Two ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) new to the Hawaiian Islands

Abstract

Two new ant species records are reported for the Hawaiian Islands. Specimens for both species were first collected in the spring of 2000 by K-12 students and classes as part of an ongoing survey for the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger), on Hawai‘i Island. Discovery of the little fire ant on Hawai‘i and Kaua‘i (Conant & Hirayama, 2000) elicited survey and control activities by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and stimulated the creation of a traveling educational curriculum through the University of Hawai‘i. Intermediate and high school students collected ants from their backyard environment with the goal of finding additional infestations of W. auropunctata. One of us (DSG) analyzed and identified all ants in these samples, which contained the two species new to Hawai‘i, and mapped their distributions. Details of this program will be reported elsewhere (D. Gruner, unpubl.). Concurrently, HDOA (RAH. & MEC) discovered one of these ant species during surveys on the island of O‘ahu.