A checklist of the ants of Arizona.

Abstract

A checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Arizona is presented. The known ant fauna of the state includes 209 species. Seven subfamilies containing a total of 45 genera are represented. Table 1 summarizes the subfamilial assortment of genera and species. This is the second such comprehensive list to appear for Arizona. An earlier annotated list (Cole, 1937) included 96 species with 57 additional subspecies and varieties for a total of 153 forms. An unpublished list by F. G. Werner in 1972 recorded 186 species. The present list (Table 2) is based primarily on the checklists of Smith (1951, 1958, 1967) and the monograph by Creighton (1950). These works, with their included references, are the primary sources for any U.S. distributional studies of ants. The list presented here is additionally based on generic monographs and publications of new distributional records that have appeared since the larger works of Smith and Creighton. Several records of species from Arizona given by Smith or Creighton but not included in the present list have been found to be records based on misidentified specimens. Literature citations are given for each entry in Table 2. Where two literature citations are given the first documents presence of the species in Arizona, and the second documents a nomenclatural change between the species' name as in the first cited source and the name as in the present list. Users of this list should be cautioned, however, that not all species records can be firmly supported. Some of the collection records in the literature are questionable, and a larger problem is with the state of the nomenclature. Several genera need specific revision; these include Pheidole, Aphaenogaster, Myrmica, Leptothorax, and Camponotus. Also, inclusion of subspecies names on this list does not necessarily mean that we believe all are valid; some may be synonyms and others may be good species. These are problems inherent in any checklist. This checklist makes available to entomologists, ecologists, and zoogeographers a comprehensive compilation of the state's known ant fauna. The list was originally prepared for zoogeographic comparison (Hunt, 1973) with a similar list for the state of Tucuman, Argentina (Kusnezov, 1953). The utility of the list goes beyond its original purpose, however, as this checklist may serve as a basic resource for researchers in Arizona.