Formicidae) in the Canary Islands and Their Possible Impacts
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Received: 16 January 2020 | Revised: 12 February 2020 | Accepted: 7 March 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jen.12751 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Six new non-native ants (Formicidae) in the Canary Islands and their possible impacts David Hernández-Teixidor1,2,3 | Antonio José Pérez-Delgado1,2,3 | Daniel Suárez1,2,3 | Joaquin Reyes-López4 1Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Sección de Biología, Abstract Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Biological invasions are one of the main causes of biodiversity loss, especially on Laguna, La Laguna, Spain oceanic islands. Ants are among the most damaging pests in the world. After sys- 2Grupo de Investigaciones Entomológicas de Tenerife (GIET), La Laguna, Spain tematic sampling of more than 1,000 localities in the Canary Islands, six new exotic 3Island Ecology and Evolution Research ant species are reported for the first time: Pheidole bilimeki (Myrmicinae), Pheidole Group, Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (IPNACSIC), La Laguna, navigans (Myrmicinae), Strumigenys membranifera (Myrmicinae), Brachymyrmex cor- Tenerife, Spain demoyi (Formicinae), Tapinoma darioi (Dolichoderinae) and Technomyrmex pallipes 4 Área de Ecología, Universidad de Córdoba, (Dolichoderinae). Moreover, another two recently reported species have been ge- Cordoba, Spain netically confirmed. Morphological and genetic data were analysed to confirm the Correspondence identity of the new records. For each species, information regarding identification, David Hernández-Teixidor, Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Instituto de distribution, global invasive records and possible impacts is given. The arrival of these Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (IPNA- species may endanger local biodiversity. CSIC), 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Email: [email protected] KEYWORDS barcoding, exotic ants, introduced species, Macaronesia, New record, oceanic islands Present address David Hernández-Teixidor, Antonio José Pérez-Delgado and Daniel Suárez, Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group (IPNA-CSIC), La Laguna, Spain Funding information Consejería de Política Territorial, Sostenibilidad y Seguridad. Gobierno de Canarias, Grant/Award Number: 151/2016 and 4/2017 1 | INTRODUCTION this is currently one of the main issues concerning biodiversity at the international level (Madjidian, Morales, & Smith, 2008). Exotic species, by definition, are those that are outside their natural Biological invasions are among the most important causes of the distribution, introduced intentionally or unintentionally by human ac- current biodiversity crisis, being involved in over half of the contem- tion (IUCN, 2000). The expansion of these species around the world porary extinctions (Bertelsmeier, Luque, Hoffmann, & Courchamp, is directly related to transport by humans (Hulme, Pyšek, Nentwig, 2015). They constitute a risk to endemic fauna and flora, since they & Vilà, 2009; Kairo, Cock, & Quinlan, 2003). The greatest number of can displace native species by competition for resources, predation, introductions has occurred in the last few decades, mainly due to the hybridization and pathogen transmission (Goulson, 2003). growth of more frequent means of transportation and altered eco- Although all regions of the planet are suffering impacts de- logical niches (Holway, Lach, Suarez, Ysutsui, & Case, 2002). In fact, rived from biological invasions, this problem is especially serious on J Appl Entomol. 2020;00:1–8. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jen © 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH | 1 2 | HERNÁNDEZ-TEIXIDOR et AL. oceanic islands (IUCN, 2000). Insular ecosystems host unique flora 2000; Clarke, Fisher, & LeBuhn, 2008). Traps were sunk into the and fauna, which have generally less adaptable species, fewer popu- ground with the top flush with the soil surface. Each trap con- lations and/or smaller population size than continental species. This sisted of a 150-ml plastic container, filled with 25 ml of water and has led to a particular vulnerability of insular species to the arrival of a few drops of detergent to decrease water surface tension. In exotic species (Reaser et al., 2007). order to maximize the diversity of ants attracted by the traps, two Invasive ants are among the most damaging pests in the world. types of bait were used: (a) tinned tuna, for species that are at- In fact, 19 have been listed as highly problematic by the IUCN SSC tracted mainly by protein foods; and (b) sugar water, for the spe- Invasive Species Specialist Group (GISD, 2019). Ants are easily trans- cies that prefer sugary foods. In each locality, 10 pitfall traps were ported by humans because of their small size and the ability to nest placed in line at a distance of 5 m from each other, aiming at the in superficial or ephemeral sites such as root masses, leaf litter, logs greatest diversity of possible microhabitats (under trees/shrubs, and plant debris. In fact, exotic ants intercepted at the ports of entry under stones, near water source, etc.). Traps 1, 5 and 9 contained are frequently detected in plant material (Bertelsmeier, Blight, & tuna baits and the others sugar water. Once placed, they stayed Courchamp, 2016). functional in the field for 48 hr. These traps are not always use- In the Canary Islands, fifty-four ant species have been reported, ful to detect all species (Alonso & Agosti, 2000), and therefore, of which 21 are considered introduced (Gobierno de Canarias, active searching has to be carried out as well (Majer, 1997). This 2018; Schifani, Gentile, Scupola, & Espadaler, 2018; Staab, 2019). consists of a thorough 20-min search of each locality at any ant- However, this number could increase in the coming years due to susceptible site. In addition, occasional sampling was conducted the continued commerce in agricultural and other carrier materials in buildings or areas where it was not possible to carry out a com- (including importation of foreign plant species). There is a lack of plete survey. control measures for entry of exotic species, combined with an ap- propriate subtropical climate that favours species establishment. In this article, we provide information regarding morphological and ge- 2.3 | Morphological and genetic identification netic identification, distribution, global invasive records and possible impacts of several species that are reported for the first time for the Specimens were identified morphologically and by DNA barcod- archipelago. ing, as the morphological taxonomy of some genera is unclear or complex, such as Brachymyrmex (Ortiz-Sepulveda, Bocxlaer, Meneses, & Fernández, 2019), Pheidole (Sarnat, Fischer, Guénard, 2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS & Economo, 2015), Tapinoma (Seifert, D'Eustacchio, Kaufmann, Centorame, & Modica, 2017) and Technomyrmex (Bolton, 2007). 2.1 | Sampling area Firstly, external morphological characters were reviewed follow- ing some identification keys, and then, a genetic identification was The Canary Islands are a volcanic archipelago comprising seven carried out to confirm the previous one. DNA was extracted using major islands off the south-west Atlantic coast of Morocco (Figure 1). QIAGEN DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit, and COI was amplified In order to know the biodiversity of exotic ants in this archipelago, using LCO1490/HCO2980 primers (Folmer, Black, Hoch, Lutz, & systematic sampling was conducted throughout all islands (including Vrijenhowk, 1994). The reaction product was Sanger sequenced, islets) during spring and summer of the years 2016–2018, periods in and the obtained sequence was blasted against the GenBank which ant species are more active at these latitudes (Angulo, Boulay, database for a proper taxonomic identification. Only, unambigu- Ruano, Tinaut, & Cerdá, 2016). Since exotic ant species tend to colo- ously identified sequences were considered, especially in complex nize altered or anthropogenic environments first, especially those genera. with high humidity (Mack et al., 2000), these kinds of habitats were the most sampled. Areas of possible arrival and dispersion such as ports, airports and plant nurseries were also surveyed. Lastly, natu- 3 | RESULTS ral areas were sampled to confirm whether they had been colonized by exotic species. A total of 1,016 localities were sampled, 103 of them by pitfall traps. This survey revealed six new exotic species for the first time in the Canary Islands, more particularly in urban areas on the islands 2.2 | Sampling methods of La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria (Table 1, Figure 1 and Table S1). This is a 22% increase in the number of introduced ants Two main sampling methods were carried out: pitfall traps and present in the Canaries. Moreover, three of the six species belong active searching. Pitfall traps are known to be an effective way to genera not previously detected in the archipelago (Strumigenys, of obtaining a representative sample of ant communities (quanti- Technomyrmex and Brachymyrmex). Except for Technomyrmex pal- tative and qualitative data) and are recommended as part of the lipes and Strumigenys membranifera, the rest of the species here standard protocol for measuring biodiversity (Alonso & Agosti, reported have never been discovered before in the Macaronesian HERNÁNDEZ-TEIXIDOR et AL. | 3 FIGURE 1 Ant sampling sites in the Canary Islands where new exotic ant species were detected. Brachymyrmex cordemoyi populations indicated with brown squares, Pheidole bilimeki green circles, Pheidole navigans blue diamond, Strumigenys membranifera yellow circles, Tapinoma darioi black crosses, and Technomyrmex