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Geographic Distribution of the Weaver Ant Oecophylla Smaragdina

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Geographic Distribution of the Weaver Ant Oecophylla Smaragdina ASIAN MYRMECOLOGY Volume 9, e009004, 2017 ISSN 1985-1944 | eISSN: 2462-2362 © James K Wetterer DOI: 10.20362/am.009004 Geographic distribution of the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina James K Wetterer Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, Florida 33458 USA Corresponding author's email: [email protected] ABSTRACT. Weaver ants (Oecophylla spp.) are conspicuous arboreal ants, which build distinctive nests in trees. In many regions, people use weaver ants for food, medicine, and/or as biological control agents. There are two recog- nized species of weaver ants: Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille, 1802) in Africa and Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) in Asia, Australia, and the West- ern Pacific. Here, I mapped the geographic distribution ofO. smaragdina based on >2700 site records from 21 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bru- nei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam. The vast majority of O. smarag- dina records come from areas with Tropical (Group A) climates according to the Köppen-Geiger system: rainforest (Af), monsoon (Am), and savanna (Aw). However, >250 records come from areas classified on the map as having a Sub- tropical (Group C) climates, mostly in the Himalayan foothills of India and Ne- pal, southern China, northern Vietnam, and the southern coast of Queensland, Australia. Almost all these sites are classified as dry winter subtropical climate (Cwa). A few O. smaragdina sites are classified as having Arid (Group B) cli- mates, all from warm semi-arid (BSh) areas. This range map based on site re- cords corrects inaccuracies in earlier published range maps. Keywords: biocontrol, biogeography, entomophagy, geographic range INTRODUCTION People use weaver ants in many regions for food, medicine, and/or as bio- Weaver ants (Oecophylla spp.) are conspicu- logical control agents. Although Oecophylla ous arboreal ants, well known in the humid species show much geographic variation in tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia, Aus- color (including shades of green, yellow, tralia, and the Western Pacific. Weaver ants orange, red, and brown), their appearance, build large distinctive nest structures in trees behavior, and nest construction are so dis- by binding together bunches of leaves us- tinctive that the genus can be easily iden- ing a silk-like substance secreted by the lar- tified through written accounts and from vae. Groups of Oecophylla workers hold the photographs. Currently, there are two rec- leaves together while other workers move the ognized species of weaver ants: Oecophylla silk-producing larvae back and forth across longinoda (Latreille, 1802) in Africa, and the gap, effectively weaving the leaves to- Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) in gether. The name Oecophylla derives from Asia, Australia, and the Western Pacific. Nu- the Greek: oikos (house) and phyllo (leaf). merous papers on weaver ants (Cole & Jones 2 James K Wetterer 1948, Lokkers 1986, Azuma et al. 2002, out in great numbers, and punished the of- 2006, Dlussky et al. 2008, Crozier et al. fender by a much sharper bite than ever we 2010) include basic range maps. In an earli- had felt from the same kind of animal be- er paper, Wetterer (submitted) examined the fore.” Later, in August 1770, Cook (1773: distribution of O. longinoda in Africa. Here, 627) observed in Australia: “Of the ant there I document in detail the known geographic are several sorts some are as green as a leaf, distribution of O. smaragdina. The epithet and live upon trees, where they build their smaragdina derives from the Latin smarag- nests of various sizes, between that of a dinus (emerald), referring to the green color- man’s head and his fist. These nests are of ation of O. smaragdina queens. a very curious structure: they are formed by The earliest known report on O. sma- bending down several of the leaves, each ragdina can be recognized in the book “Nan of which is as broad as a man’s hand, and Fang Cao Mu Zhuang” (Plants and Trees of gluing the points of them together, so as to the Southern Regions), reputedly written by form a purse; the viscus used for this pur- Ji Han in 304 AD, who described the use of pose, is an animal juice, which Nature has weaver ants in biological control: “In the enabled them to elaborate. Their method of market, the natives of Jiao-zhi [now part of first bending down the leaves, we had not northern Vietnam and southern China] sell an opportunity to observe; but we saw thou- ants stored in bags of rush mats. The nests sands uniting all their strength to hold them are like thin silk. The bags are all attached to in this position, while other busy multitudes twigs and leaves, which, with the ants inside were employed within, in applying the glu- the nests, are for sale. The ants are reddish- ten that was to prevent their returning back. yellow in color, bigger than ordinary ants. In To satisfy ourselves that the leaves were the south, if the Gan [Mandarin orange] trees bent, and held down by the effort of these do not have this kind of ant, the fruits will diminutive artificers, we disturbed them in all be damaged by many harmful insects and their work, and as soon as they were driven not a single fruit will be perfect” (Li 1979 in from their station, the leaves on which they Huang & Yang 1987). were employed sprung up with a force much Even before Fabricius (1775) de- greater than we could have thought them scribed Formica smaragdina (= O. sma- able to conquer by any combination of their ragdina) based on specimens from India, strength. But though we gratified our curios- James Cook (1773) gave excellent accounts ity at their expense, the injury did not go un- of the species in Australia. Upon making revenged; for thousands immediately threw landfall on 23 May 1770 at a site now called themselves upon us, and gave us intolerable Seventeen Seventy (formerly Round Hill; pain with their stings, especially those which 24.17°S, 151.88°E) in Queensland, Aus- took possession of our necks and our hair, tralia, Cook (1773) wrote: “We found sev- from whence they were not easily driven: eral bogs, and swamps of salt water, upon the sting was scarcely less painful than that which, and by the sides of the lagoon, grows of a bee; but, except it was repeated, the pain the true mangrove, such as is found in the did not last more than a minute.” West Indies, and the first of the kind that we Weaver ants are so conspicuous had met with. In the branches of these man- and recognizable that they have local com- groves there were many nests of a remark- mon names throughout their range. Common able kind of ant, that was as green as grass: names used for both species of Oecophylla when the branches were disturbed they came include tailor ant, red tree ant, and red ant. Geographic distribution of the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina 3 English common names for O. smaragdina single worker (as there is no range or error include Asian weaver ant, green ant (Austra- in the measurements), and does not actually lia, Papua New Guinea), and muli ant (Papua compare these measurements to those of O. New Guinea). Common names in other lan- smaragdina workers, which are extremely guages for O. smaragdina include fourmi polymorphic and show strong allometry. tisserande (French), kerengga (Malay), dimi- Though formal synonymisation is outside ya (Sinhala), semut rangrang (Indonesian), the scope of this study, I treat O. kolhapuren- hantik (Tagalog), wong mamah (Thailand), sis as conspecific withO. smaragdina. mottdaang (Lao), angkrang or ongkrong I obtained unpublished O. smarag- (Cambodian), kiến vàng (Vietnamese), Khar- dina site records from museum specimens in chin-aon or ‘kâ-gyin (Burmese), kilau lagah the collections of the United States National (Borneo), karrakum (Sepik), and kurakum Museum of Natural History and through per- (Tok Pisin). There are a vast number of local sonal communications from M. Janda (Aus- names in India, e.g., in Arunachal Pradesh, tralia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Malay- the ant is known as tonge or babuk (Chakra- sia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and vorty et al. 2016). Thailand), D. General (Philippines), R. Re- custodio (Philippines), T. Colvin (Thailand), T. Chan (Laos), S. De Greef and numerous METHODS members of Natural Cambodia (Cambodia), J. Fellowes (China), and H. Bharti (India). I treat all Oecophylla records from outside In addition, I used on-line databases with Africa as O. smaragdina. Oecophylla sma- collection information on specimens by the ragdina has a number of subspecies still Field Museum, Antweb (antweb.org), and considered valid: Oecophylla smaragdina the India Biodiversity Portal (indiabiodiver- fuscoides Karavaiev, 1933 (described from sity.org). Because the genus Oecophylla is so Java, Indonesia), Oecophylla smaragdina easy to recognize, I was able to obtain many gracilior Forel, 1911 (described from Bacan, site records based on photos published on- Indonesia), Oecophylla smaragdina gracil- line at a variety of sites, including iNatural- lima Emery, 1893 (described from Bacan, ist (www.inaturalist.org), Ispotnature (www. Indonesia), Oecophylla smaragdina seleben- ispotnature.org), Project Noah (www.pro- sis Emery, 1893 (described from Sulawesi, jectnoah.org), National Geographic (your- Indonesia), and Oecophylla smaragdina sub- shot.nationalgeographic.com), Flickr (www. nitida Emery, 1892 (described from Morotai, flickr.com), and Instagram (instagram.com). Indonesia and New Guinea). These names, The first three of these sites provided locale however, have not been applied in any con- names and geo-coordinates for all photo- sistent manner, and the status of these taxa graphs, whereas the other sites only provided is unclear.
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