Identification and nesting sites of North American species of Dolichoderus Lund (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

The identification of North American Dolichoderus species by-way-of existing keys is unnecessarily arbitrary and misdeterminations are likely between D. mariae and D. pustulatus, the latter species showing most morphological variation over its range. Diagnoses for the four described species and an undescribed form with a revised key and figures are given to aid entomologists working without identified voucher specimens. Nest data for species other than D. pustulatus in the Coastal Plain revealed below-ground nests or structures immediately at the ground sui-face. Colonies of D. pustulatus in Florida and southern Georgia have arboreal nests in the cavities of smaller limbs of hardwoods about swamps and marshes. No ground nests have been found and the species may occur in compound nests with another arboreal ant, Camponotus (Colobopsis) impressus. These observations identify several questions for further study