Liometopum occidentale

Liometopum occidentale
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Genus:	Liometopum
Species:	L. occidentale
Binomial name
Liometopum occidentale Emery, 1895 Specimen labels

Identification

Worker: This is a common bicolored species, having a dark brown head and gaster with a lighter colored mesosoma, usually golden yellow, but some may be light brown. The antennal scapes are short (1.02 mm) and surpass the posterior margin of the head by less than twice the maximum thickness of the scape. The scape has few short, decumbent hairs (no more than 20). The longest erect hairs are on the dorsal surface of the pronotum (0.26 mm in length). The mesosoma is convex with the highest point at the mesonotum.

Keys including this Species

• Key to US Liometopum species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 45.86951° to 19.008558°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Nearctic Region: United States (type locality).
Neotropical Region: Mexico.

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.

Biology

Association with Other Organisms

 Explore: Show all Associate data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

• This species is a mutualist for the aphid Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae (a trophobiont) (Jones, 1927; Saddiqui et al., 2019).
• This species is a host for the phorid fly Pseudacteon californiensis (a parasitoid) (Quevillon, 2018) (encounter mode primary; direct transmission; transmission outside nest).

Flight Period

		X	X	X	X
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Source: antkeeping.info.

• Check details at Worldwide Ant Nuptial Flights Data, AntNupTracker and AntKeeping.

 Explore: Show all Flight Month data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb

Worker. Specimen code casent0106078. Photographer Michael Branstetter, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by UCDC, Davis, CA, USA.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

• occidentale. Liometopum microcephalum var. occidentale Emery, 1895c: 330 (w.m.) U.S.A.
  • Wheeler, W.M. 1917a: 522 (q.).
  • Subspecies of apiculatum: Wheeler, W.M. 1905e: 324; Emery, 1913a: 20.
  • Status as species: Wheeler, W.M. 1917a: 521; Creighton, 1950a: 339; Smith, D.R. 1979: 1417; Allred, 1982: 486; Shattuck, 1994: 130; Bolton, 1995b: 247; Del Toro, et al. 2009: 330 (redescription).

References

• Alatorre-Bracamontes, C.E., Vásquez-Bolaños, M. 2010. Lista comentada de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) del norte de México. Dugesiana 17(1): 9-36.
• Del Toro, I., Pacheco, J.A. & Mackay, W. 2009. Revision of the ant genus Liometopum. Sociobiology 53: 299-369.
• Emery, C. 1895d. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der nordamerikanischen Ameisenfauna. (Schluss). Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst. Geogr. Biol. Tiere 8: 257-360 (page 330, worker, male described)
• Gregg, R.E. 1963. The nest of Liometopum apiculatum Mayr Hymenoptera: Formicidae. University of Colorado Studies, Series in Biology 11: 1-6 (Paper 25).
• Hoey-Chamberlain, R., Rust, M.K. 2014. Food and bait preferences of Liometopum occidentale (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Entomological Science 49(1): 30-43.
• Hoey-Chamberlain, R., Rust, M.K., Klotz, J.H. 2013. A review of the biology, ecology and behavior of Velvety Tree Ants of North America. Sociobiology 60(1): 1-10.
• Hoey-Chamberlain, R.V. 2012. Food preference, survivorship, and intraspecific interactions of Velvety Tree Ants. M.S. thesis, University of California, Riverside.
• LaPolla, J.S. 2023. Fossil ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the early Oligocene Canyon Ferry Reservoir deposit. Palaeoentomology 6(4), 385-397 (doi:10.11646/palaeoentomology.6.4.10).
• Moura, M.N., Cardoso, D.C., Cristiano, M.P. 2020. The tight genome size of ants: diversity and evolution under ancestral state reconstruction and base composition. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlaa135 (doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa135).
• Siddiqui, J. A., Li, J., Zou, X., Bodlah, I., Huang, X. 2019. Meta-analysis of the global diversity and spatial patterns of aphid-ant mutualistic relationships. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 17: 5471-5524 (doi:10.15666/aeer/1703_54715524).
• Wheeler, W. M. 1905h. The North American ants of the genus Liometopum. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 21: 321-333 (page 324, Variety of apiculatum)
• Wheeler, W. M. 1917a. The mountain ants of western North America. Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci. 52: 457-569.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Alatorre-Bracamontes, C.E. and M Vasquez-Bolanos. 2010. Lista comentada de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) del norte de México. Dugesiana 17(1):9-36
• Allred D. M. 1982. Ants of Utah. The Great Basin Naturalist 42: 415-511.
• Allred, D.M. 1982. The ants of Utah. Great Basin Naturalist 42:415-511.
• Boulton A. M., Davies K. F. and Ward P. S. 2005. Species richness, abundance, and composition of ground-dwelling ants in northern California grasslands: role of plants, soil, and grazing. Environmental Entomology 34: 96-104
• Chiotis M., L. S. Jermiin, and R. H. Crozier. 2000. A molecular framework for the phylogeny of the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 17: 108-116.
• Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
• Del Toro I., J. A. Pacheco, W. P. MacKay. 2009. Revision of the ant genus Liometopum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 53: 299-369.
• Des Lauriers J., and D. Ikeda. 2017. The ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, USA with an annotated list. In: Reynolds R. E. (Ed.) Desert Studies Symposium. California State University Desert Studies Consortium, 342 pp. Pages 264-277.
• Fisher B. L. 1997. A comparison of ant assemblages (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) on serpentine and non-serpentine soils in northern California. Insectes Sociaux 44: 23-33
• Greenberg L., M. Martinez, A. Tilzer, K. Nelson, S. Koening, and R. Cummings. 2015. Comparison of different protocols for control of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in Orange County, California, including a list of co-occurring ants. Southwestern Entomologist 40(2): 297-305.
• Holway D.A. 1998. Effect of Argentine ant invasions on ground-dwelling arthropods in northern California riparian woodlands. Oecologia. 116: 252-258
• Johnson R. Personnal Database. Accessed on February 5th 2014 at http://www.asu.edu/clas/sirgtools/resources.htm
• Johnson, R.A. and P.S. Ward. 2002. Biogeography and endemism of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Baja California, Mexico: a first overview. Journal of Biogeography 29:1009–1026/
• Longino, J.T. 2010. Personal Communication. Longino Collection Database
• Mallis A. 1941. A list of the ants of California with notes on their habits and distribution. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 40: 61-100. 
• Matsuda T., G. Turschak, C. Brehme, C. Rochester, M. Mitrovich, and R. Fisher. 2011. Effects of Large-Scale Wildfires on Ground Foraging Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Southern California. Environmental Entomology 40(2): 204-216.
• Navarrete-Heredia J. L., M. Vasquez-Bolano, and G. A. Quiroz-Rocha. 2007. New mexican distributional data on the Sceptobiini-Liometopum association (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae-Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Dolichoderinae). Sociobiology 49(3): 221-229.
• Ratchford, J.S., S.E. Wittman, E.S. Jules, A.M. Ellison, N.J. Gotelli and N.J. Sanders. 2005. The effects of fire, local environment and time on ant assemblages in fens and forests. Diversity and Distributions 11:487-497.
• Reddell J. R., and J. C. Cokendolpher. 2001. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from caves of Belize, Mexico, and California and Texas (U.S.A.) Texas. Texas Memorial Museum Speleological Monographs 5: 129-154.
• Stahlschmidt Z. R., and D. Johnson. 2018. Moving targets: determinants of nutritional preferences and habitat use in an urban ant community. Urban Ecosystems 21: 1151–1158.
• Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133
• Ward P. S. 1987. Distribution of the introduced Argentine ant (Iridomyrmex humilis) in natural habitats of the lower Sacramento Valley and its effects on the indigenous ant fauna. Hilgardia 55: 1-16
• Wheeler G. C. and Wheeler J. 1973. Ants of Deep Canyon. Riverside, Calif.: University of California, xiii + 162 pp
• Wheeler W. M. 1905. The North American ants of the genus Liometopum. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 21: 321-333.
• Wheeler W. M. 1917. The mountain ants of western North America. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 52: 457-569.