Testing the Attractiveness and Efficacy of Baits for the Monitoring and Control of the Thief Ant, Solenopsis papuana

Solenopsis papuana is one of the few introduced ant species that have widely infiltrated undisturbed mesic and wet forests in Hawaii. This may be problematic since many endemic Hawaiian insects are limited to mountain forests, and methods for monitoring and controlling S. papuana would be useful. Four non-toxic monitoring baits (corn syrup, SPAM®, peanut butter, and tuna/ corn syrup blend) and five ant pesticide baits (Advion® Fire Ant BaitTM, Amdro® Ant Block®, ExtinguishTM Plus, MaxForce® Complete Brand Granular Insect Bait, and SiestaTM) were tested for attractiveness to S. papuana in choice tests at Lyon Arboretum and Pahole Natural Area Reserve (NAR) on the island of Oahu. Amdro® Ant Block® and SiestaTM were also tested for efficacy against S. papuana in field plots at Pahole NAR. SPAM® and peanut butter were the most attractive monitoring baits at both locations. There were few significant differences in at- tractiveness among the five ant pesticides, but Amdro® Ant Block® attracted the highest or second highest number of ants at both sites, while rankings among the other baits were inconsistent. Amdro® Ant Block® presented in bait stations 2.5 m apart greatly reduced the number of ants at monitoring cards in field plots, by an average of 96% from pre-treatment levels over the course of the 246-day trial. Ant numbers also declined in the SiestaTM plots (by 77%), but more closely mir- rored fluctuations in the untreated control plots. These methods were effective for monitoring and suppressing S. papuana populations in localized natural areas in the Waianae Mountain Range

Bait Preference by the Argentine Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) In Haleakala National Park, Hawaii

The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr), has proven to be a threat to native arthropod species in Haleakala National Park, Maui, HI, and is also a potential threat to the park\u27s native flora. As it continues to expand its range, an effort has been undertaken to eradicate it, or at the least, control its spread. The 1st part of this effort focused on finding a bait carrier for subsequent toxicant-based control tests. A year-long bait preference test was implemented at each of the ant\u27s 2 infestation sites in Haleakala National Park, in which 6 solid baits and 2 liquid baits were assessed for attractiveness and feasibility for large scale control. At both sites, a toxicant-free formulation of Maxforce, a protein-based granular bait made from ground silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.), pupae, and a 25% sugar water solution were the most attractive baits. Ants took more Maxforce (without toxicant) and sugar water than all other baits, including honey granules and a fish protein bait. Sugar water, however, is difficult to distribute over large natural areas. Maxforce was therefore concluded to be the best bait carrier for toxicant-based control at Haleakala National Park because of its attractiveness and its ease for large scale broadcast dispersal

The Haleakala Argentine ant project: a synthesis of past research and prospects for the future

Reports were scanned in black and white at a resolution of 600 dots per inch and were converted to text using Adobe Paper Capture Plug-in.1. The Haleakala Argentine Ant Project is an ongoing effort to study the ecology of the invasive Argentine ant in the park, and if possible to develop a strategy to control this destructive species. 2. Past research has demonstrated that the Argentine ant causes very significant impacts on native arthropods where it invades, threatening a large portion of the park’s biodiversity in subalpine shrubland and alpine aeolian ecosystems. 3. Patterns of spread over the past 30+ years indicate that the invasion process is influenced to a substantial degree by abiotic factors such as elevation, rainfall and temperature, and that the ant has not reached its potential range. Predictions of total range in the park suggest that it has only invaded a small fraction of available suitable habitat, confirming that this species is one of most serious threats to the park’s natural resources. 4. Numerous experiments have been conducted since 1994 in an attempt to develop a method for eradicating the Argentine ant at Haleakala using pesticidal ant baits. Thirty baits have been screened for attractiveness to ants in the park, and ten of these were tested for effectiveness of control in field plots. While some of these baits have been very effective in reducing numbers of ants, none has been able to eliminate all nests in experimental plots. 5. Research into a secondary management goal of ant population containment was initiated in 1996. By treating only expanding margins of the park’s two ant populations with an ant pesticide, rates of outward spread were substantially reduced in some areas. While this strategy was implemented from 1997 to 2004, it was ultimately discontinued after 2004 because of the difficulty and insufficient effectiveness of the technique. 6. In order to achieve the types of results necessary for eradication, the project would probably need to explore the possibility of developing a specialized bait, rather than relying on a commercially produced bait. An alternative would be to pursue approval to use Xstinguish bait, a commercial bait manufactured in New Zealand and not registered for use in the US, which has yielded good results against Argentine ants. Either route would involve significant regulatory hurdles. Because the baits ultimately used would likely be liquid or paste in form, there would also be major logistical challenges in devising methods to successfully apply the baits across the two large ant populations at Haleakala.I would like to thank S.M. Joe for help in the field, and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council and Haleakala National Park for funding and logistical support. A. Bernard of Innovative Pest Control Products provided the Gourmet Liquid Ant Bait and made helpful comments on an earlier version of this report. Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposed only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government

Eupelmus niger (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), a Parasitoid of the Endangered Hawaiian Yellow-faced Bee Hylaeus anthracinus (Hymenoptera: Colletidae)

Eupelmus (Eupelmus) niger Ashmead, 1901 (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea, Eupelmidae, Eupelminae), the first-ever species of Eupelmus Dalman described from Hawai‘i, is newly recorded from O‘ahu island as a solitary, primary parasitoid of the brood of the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bee Hylaeus anthracinus (F. Smith) (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) and the non-native nimble masked bee, Hylaeus (Indialaeus) strenuus (Cameron). Both sexes are described, including, for the first time, males, and illustrated along with the female holotype through macrophotography. The biology of E. niger is discussed relative to rearing from artificial nest blocks

New State Record of the Psyllid Heterotrioza chenopodii (Reuter, 1876) (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Triozidae) for Hawaii

We report the first state record of a widespread palaearctic psyllid species, Heterotrioza chenopodii (Reuter, 1876), for the state of Hawaii. This species belongs to a small genus of 13 species feeding exclusively on host plants in the plant family Amaranthaceae (Lauterer 1982, Burckhardt and Ouvrard 2012, Ouvrard 2019). Recorded host genera are Atriplex, Beta, Chenopodium, and Spinacia (Ouvrard 2019). In Hawaii, a likely host plant is Atriplex suberecta, and possibly A. semibaccata and Chenopodium oahuense

Molecular phylogeny of Indo‐Pacific carpenter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Camponotus) reveals waves of dispersal and colonization from diverse source areas

Ants that resemble Camponotus maculatus (Fabricius, 1782) present an opportunity to test the hypothesis that the origin of the Pacific island fauna was primarily New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Indo‐Malay archipelago (collectively known as Malesia). We sequenced two mitochondrial and four nuclear markers from 146 specimens from Pacific islands, Australia, and Malesia. We also added 211 specimens representing a larger worldwide sample and performed a series of phylogenetic analyses and ancestral area reconstructions. Results indicate that the Pacific members of this group comprise several robust clades that have distinctly different biogeographical histories, and they suggest an important role for Australia as a source of Pacific colonizations. Malesian areas were recovered mostly in derived positions, and one lineage appears to be Neotropical. Phylogenetic hypotheses indicate that the orange, pan‐Pacific form commonly identified as C. chloroticus Emery 1897 actually consists of two distantly related lineages. Also, the lineage on Hawaiʻi, which has been called C. variegatus (Smith, 1858), appears to be closely related to C. tortuganus Emery, 1895 in Florida and other lineages in the New World. In Micronesia and Polynesia the C. chloroticus‐like species support predictions of the taxon‐cycle hypothesis and could be candidates for human‐mediated dispersal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/1/cla12099-sup-0002-FigureS2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/2/cla12099-sup-0003-FigureS3.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/3/cla12099-sup-0001-FigureS1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/4/cla12099-sup-0004-FigureS4.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/5/cla12099-sup-0005-FigureS5.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/6/cla12099-sup-0006-FigureS6.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112260/7/cla12099.pd

Hawai‘i Forest Review: Synthesizing the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation of a Model System

As the most remote archipelago in the world, the Hawaiian Islands are home to a highly endemic and disharmonic biota that has fascinated biologists for centuries. Forests are the dominant terrestrial biome in Hawai‘i, spanning complex, heterogeneous climates across substrates that vary tremendously in age, soil structure, and nutrient availability. Species richness is low in Hawaiian forests compared to other tropical forests, as a consequence of dispersal limitation from continents and adaptive radiations in only some lineages, and forests are dominated by the widespread Metrosideros species complex. Low species richness provides a relatively tractable model system for studies of community assembly, local adaptation, and species interactions. Moreover, Hawaiian forests provide insights into predicted patterns of evolution on islands, revealing that while some evidence supports “island syndromes,” there are exceptions to them all. For example, Hawaiian plants are not as a whole less defended against herbivores, less dispersible, more conservative in resource use, or more slow-growing than their continental relatives. Clearly, more work is needed to understand the drivers, sources, and constraints on phenotypic variation among Hawaiian species, including both widespread and rare species, and to understand the role of this variation for ecological and evolutionary processes, which will further contribute to conservation of this unique biota. Today, Hawaiian forests are among the most threatened globally. Resource management failures – the proliferation of non-native species in particular – have led to devastating declines in native taxa and resulted in dominance by novel species assemblages. Conservation and restoration of Hawaiian forests now rely on managing threats including climate change, ongoing species introductions, novel pathogens, lost mutualists, and altered ecosystem dynamics through the use of diverse tools and strategies grounded in basic ecological, evolutionary, and biocultural principles. The future of Hawaiian forests thus depends on the synthesis of ecological and evolutionary research, which will continue to inform future conservation and restoration practices

Genetic Structure, Nestmate Recognition and Behaviour of Two Cryptic Species of the Invasive Big-Headed Ant Pheidole megacephala

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Efforts at control of the Argentine ant in Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

Reports were scanned in black and white at a resolution of 600 dots per inch and were converted to text using Adobe Paper Capture Plug-in.The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr), has proven to be a threat to native arthropod species in Haleakala National Park, and is also a potential threat to the park's native flora. As it continues to expand its range, an effort has been undertaken to eradicate it, or at the least, control its spread. During a year-long bait preference test implemented at each of the ant's two infestation sites, the commercially available Maxforce granular ant bait from the Clorox Corporation was found to be the most attractive and feasible bait for large scale control. Subsequently Maxforce, which is formulated with 0.9% hydramethylnon, was used in test plots to determine the efficacy of the bait in the field. Initially, Maxforce was tested at two application rates: broadcast at 2 lbs/acre and 4 lbs/acre. Later, the following treatments were also tested: a Maxforce and honey granule mix, Maxforce with 0.5% hydramethylnon, Maxforce with a different solvent, Maxforce distributed in exposed piles, and Maxforce distributed in covered piles. While there were significant differences in the magnitude of ant reduction among the various treatments, all yielded the same general result. Foraging ant numbers at monitoring bait stations declined an average maximum of 97.0% in the test plots, with no plots achieving 100% reduction. At two months post treatment the average number of foraging ants was still reduced by 92.1%. Nest survival in the plots was impacted to a lesser degree, and was difficult to measure accurately due to the occurrence of nest movement. Nevertheless, data showed no significant differences in the rates of nest survival between the treatments after two months. A second identical application in plots treated with Maxforce at 2 and 4 lbs/acre did not result in eradication. Bait attractiveness and a small window of foraging opportunity were judged to be the main obstacles in achieving total eradication. The next step in Argentine ant investigations at Haleakala should test the effectiveness of treating range margins with Maxforce for preventing or slowing range expansion.Chlorox Compan