Abstract
The parasitic ant Leptothorax wilsoni Heinze, 1989 was recorded from New Hampshire, Quebec, and New Brunswick. We report on colonies found in two sites in Jasper National Park, Alberta and in one site south of Glacier National Park, Montana. The host species in the west is apparently the same as in the eastern area. Brachypterous intermorphic and fully alate gynomorphic females were found together in two colonies, confirming that L. wilsoni is a species with queen polymorphism. L. wilsoni workers and host species queens lacked in all colonies, as in the samples from eastern North America.
Highlights
The social-parasitic ant Leptothorax wilsoni Heinze, 1989, was reported from three sites in eastern North America" (i) the type locality, Mt
We suspect that long range dispersal occurs with fully alate females, and that local colonization with brachypterous flightless queens is of some selective advantage for L. wilsoni, as was demonstrated for Leptothorax sp
B) is widespread and occurs in considerable densities, which are not markedly higher in the sites where we found L. wilsoni than in surrounding forests
Summary
The social-parasitic ant Leptothorax wilsoni Heinze, 1989, was reported from three sites in eastern North America" (i) the type locality, Mt. They further confirm conspecificity of brachypterous and gynomorphic queens, lack of the worker caste and the absence of host species queens in parasitized colonies. Under the tentative assumption that this is the same as the host species of L. wilsoni in eastern North America, we will refer to it here as Leptothorax sp.
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