Abstract
The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile Mayr, recently removed from the genus Iridomyrmex; Shattuck 1992) is a notorious tramp species. Argentine ants have been introduced throughout the world via human commerce and are most successful in Mediterranean and subtropical climates (Holldobler & Wilson 1990). Argentine ant invasions are ecologically devastating; they displace native ants (Erickson 1972) and other arthropods (Cole et al. 1992) and perturb ant-plant (Bond & Slingsby 1984) and ant-aphid (Way 1963) mutualisms. Although Argentine ants have been in California for at least 85 years (Woodworth 1908) and occur there widely (Knight & Rust 1990), relatively little is known about their invasion. Tremper (1976) and Ward (1987) conducted detailed surveys of ants in different portions of northern California and found L. humile common in urban, agricultural, and disturbed riparian woodland habitats. In addition, both of these studies and Erickson (1972) documented little, if any, coexistence between L. humile and epigeic (above-ground foraging) native ants. I repeated the surveys of Ward (1987) and Tremper (1976) to determine the degree to which Argentine ants are established and spreading in California. A large-scale, longitudinal survey such as this is important to clarify the temporal and spatial patterns of Argentine ant invasions in California and can be compared to such patterns elsewhere in the world.
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