Check List 12(4): e19537, doi: 10.15560/12.4.1935
A checklist and assemblage comparison of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma
Karl A. Roeder‡, Diane V. Roeder‡‡ University of Oklahoma, United States of America
Corresponding author: Karl Roeder ( karoeder@ou.edu ) © 2017 Karl Roeder, Diane Roeder. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Roeder K, Roeder D (2016) A checklist and assemblage comparison of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Check List 12(4): 1935. https://doi.org/10.15560/12.4.1935 |  |
Abstract
We present a checklist of 47 ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, USA. Surveys conducted in 2015 recaptured 67% of all historically collected species and add 12 new county records including the new state records of Pheidole tetra and Solenopsis aurea. We demonstrate the importance of sampling multiple habitats for species inventories as forests and grasslands contained compositionally unique ant assemblages. We also report an absence of the invasive red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, at all sampling locations despite its occupation of the surrounding area and the southern half of the state. Combined, these results highlight the importance of protected land in conserving regional fauna and add to our understanding of the biodiversity in Oklahoma.
Keywords
biodiversity; Central Great Plains; conservation; native species