Survey of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the city of Providence (Rhode Island, United States) and a new northern-most record for Brachyponera chinensis (Emery, 1895)

By

Waters, Jane S.
Keough, Nicole W.
Burt, Joseph
Eckel, Jonathan D.
Hutchinson, Trey
Ewanchuk, Jonathan
Rock, Matthew
Markert, Jeffrey A.
Axen, Heather J.
Gregg, David

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022-12-21

Original Publication

Check list : journal of species lists and distribution

Volume

18

Series / Issue

Issue: 6

Pages

1347--1368

Subjects

Bioblitz , Biodiversity , Cities , Needle Ants , survey , Urban ecology

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

[São Paulo, Brazil] Luís Felipe Toledo 2005-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15560/18.6.1347

 

Abstract

We surveyed ants in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2015 to 2019. Methods including repeated pitfall trap sampling and manual searching were used to collect ants at Providence College and a rapid biological assess-ment was conducted at Roger Williams Park. A total of 36 species were identified based on morphology, including the first observations of a colony of Needle Ants (Brachyponera chinensis Emery, 1895) in New England. Twenty-six species identified were new county records and seven species were new state records, representing a substantial update to the list of known ant species in Rhode Island, currently totaling 41 species in Providence and 69 spe-cies from six subfamilies across the state. These results are comparable with similarly scaled surveys conducted at parks and cities across the world, and they also offer a reminder that while urbanization can be associated with reductions in habitat availability for some fauna, cities can be accessible and ecologically important locations for exploring myrmecological biodiversity.