Exotic Ants of Arkansas
Joe MacGown

Thus far, only seven exotic species are known to occur in Arkansas, and it is debatable whether or not Paratrechina vividula is even an introduced species. Another exotic and invasive species, Tetramorium tsushimae Emery, which is native to East Asia, has been found in Missouri and Illinois, and it is concievable that it could find its way into Arkansas. The introduced ants listed for Arkansas originated from Central and South America and Old World Tropics (Deyrup et al. (2000).

Clicking on a species name will lead to a page with further information and photographs of that species. Although species pages are at various levels of progress, most pages now have representative photographs of at least workers of the species. In addition to the photographs of ants taken by Joe MacGown at the Mississippi Entomological Museum (MEM), many photos are used, with permission, from AntWeb, a web site about ants of the world with amazing photos. Another site with photographs of ants is "Discover Life." The Discover Life site provides a list of North American ants with photos at "Kinds of Ants , Ants of North America Page". On each individual MEM species page, a link is provided (at the bottom of the page) for that species on both the AntWeb site and the Discover Life ant site. Additionally, many of the species found in this list can be identified using the identification keys found on this web site.

Exotic Ants of Arkansas (arranged alphabetically)

             Brachymyrmex patagonicus Mayr (introduced-Argentina, Neotropics, pest)
             Lasius alienus (Foerster) (introduced-Europe)
             Linepithema humile (Mayr) (introduced-Argentina, pest)
             Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus) (introduced-Old World Tropics-Africa?, pest)
             Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille) (introduced-Old World Tropics-Africa?, pest)

             Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius) (introduced?-Neotropics, pest)
             Solenopsis invicta Buren (introduced-Brazil, pest)

Literature Cited

Deyrup, M., S. Cover, and L. Davis. 2000. Exotic ants in Florida. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 126 293-325.

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For questions or comments about this page or about ants, contact Joe MacGown: jmacgown@entomology.msstate.edu