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Tramp Ants

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Encyclopedia of Social Insects

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Global trade and commerce have led to the unintended establishment of more than 200 ant species [3] beyond their natural geographic ranges. Most of these ants are hitchhikers in nursery plants, freight and machinery, etc., and a subset of them have moved around the globe and achieved broad cosmopolitan distributions. These are often referred to as tramp ants, which broadly speaking is defined as exotic (non-native) ants transported with cargo by ships, trains, or other means. The first list of tramp ants was compiled more than a century ago, and comprised a total of 14 species. The number has since been extended to 42 [22]. Among the better known of these are the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), fire ants (Solenopsis invicta and S. geminata), the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), the longhorn crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis), the little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata), and the big-headed ant (Pheidole megacephala). These species frequently become dominant in...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang

  2. Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang

  3. Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang

  4. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    DeWayne Shoemaker

Authors
  1. Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang
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  2. DeWayne Shoemaker
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Correspondence to Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang .

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  1. Caura Village, Trinidad and Tobago

    Christopher K. Starr

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Yang, CC.S., Shoemaker, D. (2020). Tramp Ants. In: Starr, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_128-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_128-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90306-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90306-4

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