Species
Linepithema humile
Threats Status
Unwanted Organism
Common Name(s)
Argentine ant
Family
Formicidae
Habitat
Argentine ant colonies, unlike most other ant species, co-operate with individual from other colonies, and can combine over winter into super-colonies. They are very aggressive. They breed prolifically (do not swarm out to new locations).
Argentine ants are highly active in searching for food and unlike most other ant species also climb trees to get to food sources.
Description
Argentine ants are a relatively small ant species and of orange-brown colour.
Similar Species
Native ant species (best to be distinguished by the body colour as most common household ants in New Zealand are black)
Threat To Plants
The Argentine ant can displace most other ant species which has knock on effects on soil processes. They feed extensively on the honeydew produced by homopterans (Lester et al. 2003) and actively disperse the homopterans and protect them from predation. This may increase adventive homopterans in native habitats and domestic and commercial orchards, interfere with native predators of homopterans, and help transmit diseases between plants.
Distribution
The Argentine ant is found in the Auckland area, Northland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Wellington City, Nelson City and Christchurch.
Measurements
Adults are 2-3 mm long
Year Introduced
1990
Reason For Introduction
Accidentally
Colonisation History
First introduced to New Zealand at Mount Smart (Auckland) in 1990 (site of the 1990 Commenwealth Games). They do not spread rapidly (as they do not swarm) but have been recently found in Bay pf Plenty, Christchurch, Nelson, Northland, Waikato and Wellington.