ASIAN
MYRMECOLOGY

Asian Myrmecology, Volume 7, pages 105-112, published August 2015
DOI: 10.20362/am.007010

Geographic spread of Vollenhovia emeryi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

JAMES K. WETTERER^1*, BENOIT GUÉNARD² & DOUGLAS B. BOOHER³

Abstract:

Vollenhovia emeryi Wheeler is a small and inconspicuous ant species originally from East Asia that recently has been found in North America. Here, we examine the geographic spread of V. emeryi and compare its native range in Asia with its exotic range in North America. We compiled published and unpublished V. emeryi specimen records from >300 sites. We documented the earliest known V. emeryi records for 14 geographic areas, ten in Asia (Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and five provinces of China) and four in North America (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington DC). Reports of V. emeryi from lower latitude (14.3°N to 25.1°N) sites in Taiwan, Thailand, and southern China, however, probably represent a distinct species. Vollenhovia emeryi has a much broader latitudinal spread in East Asia (at least 13.5° range: 29.7°N to 43.2°N) than it has in North America (1.3° range: 38.7°N to 40.0°N). The North American records of V. emeryi are all at latitudes near the northernmost records in Asia. It seems likely that V. emeryi will spread further in North America, particularly towards the south and west.

Keywords:

biogeography, biological invasion, exotic species, invasive species

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¹Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA

²School of Biological Sciences & The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road & Hong Kong, China

³Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive S, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA

*Corresponding author: wetterer@fau.edu