Linepithema humile

Japanese Name

Aruzenchin-ari

Mayr, G. (1868b)

Hypoclinea humilis Mayr, 1868, Hypoclinea (Iridomyrmex) humilis: Mayr, 1870, Iridomyrmex humilis: Emery, 1888, Linepithema humile: Shattuck, 1992

Total length of workers around 2.5 mm. Body color dark brown. Eyes distinct located anteriorly on the dorsal surface of the head. Promesonotum weakly raised. Petiolar scale present, its apex situated below the level of the propodeal spiracle. Integument thin and easily collapsed.

This is the notoriously pestiferous Argentine ant, formerly known as Iridomyrmex humilis. Its colonies are large and polygynous, sometimes comprising hundreds of queens and many thousands of workers. New nests are founded by migration or budding. The Argentine ant commonly infests houses and other premises, contaminating and spoiling stored food and other products. It tends homopterous agricultural and horticultural insect pests, and severely damages and depletes populations of native ant species in infested areas. An overview of the pest status of L. humile in the United States was published by Thompson (1990) .
L. humile is native to parts of South America (Brazil and Argentine) and has been distributed throughout much of the world by human commerce. There have been no former Asian recorods, but Sugiyama (1999) recently reported collections from Hatsukaichi city dating from 1993.