Diversity and distribution of introduced and potentially invasive ant species from the three main ecoregions of Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26496/bjz.2018.19Keywords:
biodiversity, invasive ants, ecoregions, urban habitats, Côte d’IvoireAbstract
An important issue in biodiversity conservation is the early detection of introduced and invasive organisms and identification of regions that may either be points of introduction or be particularly prone to invasion. Among insects, ants are easily transported worldwide by humans, and several species, such as Solenopsis geminata or Pheidole megacephala, can be highly invasive. To establish an initial baseline for urban ant monitoring in Côte d’Ivoire (Western Africa), fifteen cities - equally distributed over the three main ecoregions of the country - were surveyed using tuna baits as sampling method. A total of 103 ant species from 22 genera and 5 subfamilies were collected. We identified 10 potentially invasive species, amongst them two new species for the country: Solenopsis geminata and Solenopsis globularia. Another highly invasive species, Paratrechina longicornis, was the most abundant species collected throughout the country. Potentially invasive ant species co-occurred with non-invasive species, and contributed importantly to the structure of ant assemblages of all sampled urban habitats. The present study provides evidence that introduced and invasive ant species are established in cities of Côte d’Ivoire, often in high numbers and are occurring over large areas of invasion.References
AB Majid A.H., Ellias S.S., Ahmad H., Hassan A. & Ahmad H.D. (2016). Tropical household ants species composition and distribution in rapid urbanization area in Penang, Malaysia. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 4: 496–500.
Agosti D. & Alonso L.E. (2000). The ALL protocol: a standard protocol for the collection of ground-dwelling ants. In: Agosti D., Majer J.D., Alonso L.E. & Schultz T.R. (eds) Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity: 204–206. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC.
Andersen A.N. (1991). Sampling communities of ground foraging ants: pitfall catches compared with quadrat counts in an Australian tropical savannah. Australian Journal of Ecology 16: 273–279.
Angilletta J.R., Wilson M.J., Niehaus A.C., Sears M.W., Navas C.A. & Ribeiro P.L. (2007). Urban physiology: city ants possess high heat tolerance. PloS ONE 2: e258. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000258
AntWeb. Available from https://www.antweb.org [accessed 15 September 2015].
Avenard J.M., Eldin M., Girard G., Sircoulon J., Touchebeuf P., Guillaumet J.L. & Adjanohoun E. (1971). Le milieu naturel de la Côte d’Ivoire. Mémoires ORSTOM 50, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris.
Beauchemin C. (2002). Surmonter le doute statistique: le cas de l’émigration urbaine en Côte d’Ivoire. Espace Populations Sociétés 20: 165–177.
Berman M., Andersen A.N., Hély C. & Gaucherel C. (2013). Overview of the distribution, habitat association and impact of exotic ants on native ant communities in New Caledonia. PloS ONE 8(6): e67245. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067245
Bolger D.T., Suarez A.V., Crooks K.R., Morrison S.A. & Case T.J. (2000). Arthropods in urban habitat fragments in southern California: area, age, and edge effects. Ecological Applications 10 (4): 1230–1248. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1230:AIUHFI]2.0.CO;2
Bolton B. (1976). The ant tribe Tetramoriini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Constituent genera, review of smaller genera and review of Triglyphothrix Forel. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology series 34: 283–379.
Bolton B. (1980). The ant tribe Tetramoriini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The genus Tetramorium Mayr, in the Ethiopian Zoogeographical Region. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology series 40 (3): 193–384.
Bolton B. (1982). Afrotopical species of the myrmicine Cardiocondyla, Leptothorax, Melissotarsus, Messor and Cataulacus (Formicidae) in the Ethiopian. region. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology series 45 (4): 307–370.
Bolton B. (1987). A review of the Solenopsis genus-group and revision of Afrotropical Monomorium Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology series 54 (3): 263–452.
Bolton B. (1994). Identification Guide to the Ant Genera of the World. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brecko J., Mathys A., Dekoninck W., Leponce M., Vandenspiegel D. & Semal P. (2014). Focus stacking: Comparing commercial top-end set-ups with a semi-automatic low budget approach. A possible solution for mass digitization of type specimens. ZooKeys 464: 1–23. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.464.8615
Chatelain C., Dao H., Gautier L. & Spichiger R. (2003). Forest cover changes in Côte d’Ivoire and Upper Guinea. In: Poorter L., Bongers F., Kouamé F.N’., Hawthorne W.D. (eds) Biodiversity of West African Forests: an Ecological Atlas of Woody Plant Species: 15–32.
Clarke K.R. (1993). Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18: 117–143.
Clarke K.R. & Green R.H. (1988). Statistical design and analysis for a “biological effects” study. Marine Ecology Progress Series 46: 213–226.
Colwell R.K. (2005). EstimateS: Statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples. Version 9. Available from purl.oclc.org/estimates [accessed 21 March 2018].
Cotten A.M. (1974). Un aspect de l’urbanisation en Côte d’Ivoire. Les cahiers d’outre-mer 27: 183–193.
Deyrup M., Davis L. & Cover S. (2000). Exotic ants in Florida. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 126: 293–326.
Diomande T. (1981). Étude du peuplement en fourmis terricoles des forêts ombrophiles climaciques et des zones anthropisées de la Côte d’Ivoire méridionale. PhD Thesis, University of Abidjan, Côte-d’Ivoire.
Ehrenfeld J.G. (2010). Ecosystem consequences of biological invasions. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 41: 59–80. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102209-144650
Ferland A. (2015). La conservation de la biodiversité en milieu urbain: comment aménager les villes du monde? Rapport de Maitrise de l’Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.
Gautier L. & Spichiger R. (2003). The forest-savannah transition in West Africa. In: Poorter L., Bongers F., Kouamé F.N. & Hawthorne W.D. (eds) Biodiversity of West African Forests: an Ecological Atlas of Woody Plant Species: 33–40.
Gotelli N.J., Ellison A.M., Dunn R.R. & Sanders N.J. (2011). Counting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Biodiversity sampling and statistical analysis for myrmecologists. Myrmecological News 15: 13–19.
Guénard B., Cardinal-De Casas A. & Dunn R.R. (2014). High diversity in an urban habitat: are some animal assemblages resilient to long-term anthropogenic change? Urban Ecosystems 18 (2): 449– 463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-014-0406-8
Halle B. & Bruzon V. (2006). Profil environnemental de la Côte d’Ivoire.. Rapport d’Etude pour la Commission Européenne. Rapport final, Consortium AGRIFOR Consult.
Hammer Ø., Harper D.A.T. & Rian P.D. (2001). PAST: paleontological statistic software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4: 1–9.
Herrera H.W. & Causton C.E. (2008). Distribution of fire ants Solenopsis geminata and Wasmannia auropunctata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Galapagos Islands. Galapagos Research 65: 11–14.
Hölldobler B. & Wilson E.O. (1990). The Ants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Holway D.A., Lach L., Suarez A.V., Tsutsui N.D. & Case T.J. (2002). The causes and consequences of ant invasions. Annual review of Ecology and Systematics 33: 181–233. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.33.010802.150444
Hulme P.E. (2009). Trade, transport and trouble: managing invasive species pathways in an era of globalization. Journal of Applied Ecology 46: 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01600.x
Kark S., Iwaniuk A., Schalimtzek A. & Banker E. (2007). Living in the city: can anyone become an ‘urban exploiter’? Journal of Biogeography 34 (4): 638–651.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01638.x
Keay R.W.J. (1959). An Outline of Nigerian Vegetation: 31–48. Government printer, Lagos.
Koné M. (2013). Effets de l’intensification des modes d’utilisation des terres et du gradient d’age de la cacaoculture sur la diversité biologique des fourmis en zones préforestière (lamto) et forestière semi-décidue (Oumé) de Côte d’Ivoire. PhD Thesis, University Felix Houphouet, Boigny.
Kouakou L.M.M., Yeo K., Vanderheyden A., Kone M., Delsinne T., Ouattara K., Herrera H.W. & Dekoninck W. (2017). First morphological and molecular confirmed report of the invasive tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius, 1804) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa). BioInvasions Records 6 (2): 173–179.
Kowarik I. & Von Der Lippe M. (2007). Pathways in plant invasions. Ecological Studies 193: 29–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36920-2_3
Levieux J. (1971). Données écologiques et biologiques sur le peuplement en fourmis terricoles d’une savane préforestière de Côte d’Ivoire. PhD Thesis, Faculty of Sciences, Paris.
Longino J.T. (2000). What to do with data. In: Agosti D., Majer J.D., Alonso L.E., Schultz T.R. (eds) Ants: Sandard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity: 186–203. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Mack R.N. & Lonsdale W.M. (2001). Humans as global plant dispersers: getting more than we bargained for: current introductions of species for aesthetic purposes present the largest single challenge for predicting which plant immigrants will become future pests. BioScience 51 (2): 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0095:HAGPDG]2.0.CO;2
McDonald R.I., Marcotullio P.J. & Güneralp B. (2013). Urbanization and Global Trends in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. In: Elmqvist T., Fragkias M., Goodness J., Güneralp B., Marcotullio P.J., McDonald R.I., Parnell S., Schewenius M., Sendstad M., Seto K.C. & Wilkinson C. (eds) Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: 31–52. Springer, Netherlands.
McGlynn T.P. (1999). The worldwide transfer of ants: geographical distribution and ecological invasions. Journal of Biogeography 26: 535–48. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.1999.00310.x
McKinney M.L. (2006). Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization. Biological Conservation 127: 247–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.09.005
Molina-Montenegro M.A., Carrasco-Urra F., Acuña-Rodriguez I., Oses R, Torres-Diaz C. & Chwedorzewska K.J. (2014). Assessing the importance of human activities for the establishment of the invasive Poa annua in Antarctica. Polar Research 33 (1): 21425. https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v33.21425
Narendra A., Gibb H. & Ali T.M. (2011). Structure of ant assemblages in Western Ghats, India: role of habitat, disturbance and introduced species. Insect Conservation and diversity 4 (2): 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-4598.2010.00113.x
Ossala A., Nash M.A., Christie F.J., Hahs A.K. & Livesley S.J. (2015). Urban habitat complexity affects species richness but not environmental filtering of morphologically-diverse ants. PeerJ 3: e1356. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1356
Philpott S.M., Cotton J., Bichier P., Friedrich R.L., Moorhead L.C., Uno S. & Valdez M. (2014). Local and landscape drivers of arthropod abundance, richness, and trophic composition in urban habitats. Urban Ecosystems 17: 513–532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-013-0333-0
Pimentel D. (2011). Biological Invasions: Economic and Environmental Costs of Alien Plant, Animal, and Microbe Species. CRC Press.
RGPH. (2014). Recensement général de la population et de l’habitation en Côte d’Ivoire. Available from http://www.ins.ci/n/RESULTATS%20GLOBAUX.pdf [accessed 6 June 2016].
Sarnat E.M. (2008). PIAkey: Identification Guide to Invasive Ants of the Pacific Islands, Edition 2.0, Lucid v.3.4. USDA/APHIS/PPQ Center for Plant Health Science and Technology and University of California-Davis.
Savane I. & Konare A. (2010). Le climat. Atlas de la Biodiversité de l’Afrique de l’Ouest 3: 124–125.
SCDB. (2014). Secrétariat de la Convention sur la diversité biologique. 4e édition des perspectives mondiales de la diversité biologique. Montréal, 155 pages. Available from https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo4/publication/gbo4-fr-hr.pdf [accessed 6 June 2016].
Seto K.C., Fragkias M., Güneralp B., Reilly M.K. (2011). A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion. PloS ONE 6 (8): e23777. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023777
Seto K.C., Parnell S. & Elmqvist T. (2013). A global outlook on urbanization. In: Elmqvist T.A., Fragkias M., Goodness J., Güneralp B., Marcotullio P.J., McDonald R.I., Parnell S., Schewenius M., Sendstad M., Seto K.C. & Wilkinson C. (eds) Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: 1–12. Springer, Netherlands.
Simberloff D. & Rejmánek M. (2011). Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions. Volume 3. University of California Press, Oakland.
Simberloff D., Martin J.L., Genovesi P., Maris V., Wardle D.A., Aronson J., Courchamp F., Galil B., García-Berthou E., Pascal M., Pysek P., Sousa R., Tabacchi E. & Vilá M. (2013). Impacts of biological invasions: what’s what and the way forward. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28: 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.013
Suarez A.V., McGlynn T. & Tsutsui N.D. (2010). Biogeographic patterns of the origins and spread of introduced ants. In: Lach L., Parr K. & Abbot K. (eds) Ant Ecology: 233–244. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
UNITED NATIONS. (2010). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision Highlights. United Nations, New York.
Van Ham C., Genovesi P. & Scalera R. (2013). Invasive Alien Species: the Urban Dimension, Case Studies on Strengthening Local Action in Europe. IUCN European Union Representative Office, Brussels, Belgium.
Von Der Lippe M. & Kowarik I. (2008). Do cities export biodiversity? Traffic as dispersal vector across urban-rural gradients. Diversity and Distributions 14 (1): 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00401.x
Vonshak M. & Gordon D.M. (2015). Intermediate disturbance promotes invasive ant abundance. Biological Conservation 186: 359–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.03.024
Wagner H., Wildi H.O. & Ewald C.W. (2000). Additive partitioning of plant species diversity in an agricultural mosaic landscape. Landscape Ecology 15 (3): 219–227. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008114117913
Wauters N., Dekoninck W., Herrera H.W. & Fournier D. (2014). Distribution, behavioral dominance and potential impacts on endemic fauna of tropical fire ant Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius, 1804) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae) in the Galápagos archipelago. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 90 (4): 205–220. https://doi.org/10.3956/2014-90.4.205
Wetterer J.K. (2008). Worldwide spread of the longhorn crazy ant, Paratrechina longicornis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 11: 137–149.
Wetterer J.K. (2010a). Worldwide spread of the pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 13: 115–129.
Wetterer J.K. (2010b). Worldwide spread of the flower ant, Monomorium floricola (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 13: 19–27.
Wetterer J.K. (2011). Worldwide spread of the tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 14 (1): 21–35.
Wetterer J.K. (2012). Worldwide spread of the African big-headed ant, Pheidole megacephala (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 17: 51–62.
Wetterer J.K. (2015). Geographic origin and spread of cosmopolitan ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Halteres 6: 66–78.
Wetterer J.K. & Garcia F.H. (2015). Worldwide spread of Tetramorium caldarium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 21: 93–99.
White F (1983). The Vegetation of Africa, a Descriptive Memoir to Accompany the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO Vegetation Map of Africa. UNESCO, Paris.
Yeo K. (2006). Dynamique spatiale et diversité des fourmis de la litière et du sol dans une mosaïque foret-savane en Côte d’Ivoire. PhD Thesis, University Pierre Marie Curie and University of Abobo Adjamé.
Yeo K., Konate S., Tiho S. & Camara S.K. (2011). Impacts of land use types on ant communities in a tropical forest margin (Oumé–Côte d’Ivoire). African Journal of Agricultural Research 6 (1): 260–274.
Yeo K., Kouakou L.M., Dekoninck W., Ouattara K. & Konate S. (2016). Detecting intruders: assessment of the anthropophilic ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the city of Abidjan and along access roads in Banco National Park (Côte d’Ivoire). Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 4 (4): 351–359.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All published papers will be put on-line as high resolution PDF’s. Copyright thus remains with the authors. All manuscripts will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
