Linepithema Mayr

Ward, P. S., 2005, A synoptic review of the ants of California (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Zootaxa 936, pp. 1-68 : 26

Genus Linepithema Mayr

The introduced Argentine ant, L. humile (Mayr) , is abundant in many urban and agricultural locations in lowland California, and it has invaded natural habitats along rivers and in some coastal regions. Workers avidly tend plant nectaries and honeydew­producing hemipterans. L. humile aggressively eliminates epigeic (above­ground foraging) native ant species ( Ward 1987; Human & Gordon 1996; Holway 1998). Most California populations of L. humile exhibit a unicolonial population structure, in which there is little or no intraspecific aggression, and they have reduced genetic diversity compared to native populations in Argentina ( Tsutsui et al. 2000). Additional references (a sampling only): Buczkowski et al. ( 2004), Carney et al. ( 2003), Gordon et al. ( 2001), Heller ( 2004), Holway ( 1999), Holway et al. ( 1998, 2002), Holway and Suarez ( 2004), Human and Gordon ( 1997), Ingram and Gordon ( 2003), Knight and Rust ( 1990), Longcore ( 2003), Newell and Barber ( 1913), Sanders et al. ( 2001), Shattuck ( 1992 a, 1992 c), Smith ( 1965), Suarez et al. ( 1998, 1999, 2001), Tsutsui and Case ( 2001), Tsutsui et al. ( 2003), Vega and Rust ( 2001).