Ants of Hispaniola

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online

This is the project page for the ants of the Hispaniola. This Caribbean island includes two countries: the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Species Lists

Identification Resources

Keys

The following subfamilies have keys to the Hispaniola genera:

Occurrence Data

There are two data sets available:

Notes

There are a number of species in Hispaniola with a curious color pattern of a dark body with a creamy-yellow gaster. Anyone that has ever seen Tapinoma melanocephalum knows that small workers with this color pattern creates an illusion that there are tiny bright colored dots moving about the surfaces where these ants are foraging. You notice the bright gaster but it does not immediately register that those moving dots are ants. For species of ants that forage on forest soil and litter, which is often darkly colored, the gasters of the ants stand out while their bodies match to color of the substrate and are difficult to see.

Pheidole harlequina - The major also exhibits the same color pattern.
Crematogaster sp., This is an undescribed species of Crematogaster known from the Dominican Republic.
Linepithema keiteli - This species is quite variable but there are some forms, as shown here, that have the distinctive color pattern.
Tapinoma melanocephalum - An introduced species.

These two Cephalotes species also have a similar color pattern, although these are larger ants that are typically found living arboreally.