A first look at COI barcodes of Galapagos Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e163406

Selene Escobar-Ramírez^‡§, Ana B. García-Ruilova^|, Ignacio J. Moreno-Buitrón^‡, Melannie Núñez^¶, Paola Tatiana Flores-Males^‡, María Torres^¶, David A. Donoso^#

‡ Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Instituto de Biodiversidad Tropical IBIOTROP, Laboratorio de Zoología Terrestre, Quito 170901, Ecuador§ Galápagos Science Center, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill UNC, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristóbal 200101, Ecuador| División de Entomología, Difusión y Gestión de Información, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad INABIO, Quito, Ecuador¶ Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito 170901, Ecuador# Grupo de Investigación en Ecología y Evolución en los Trópicos -EETrop-, Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Ecuador

Corresponding author: Selene Escobar-Ramírez ( sescobar@usfq.edu.ec )

Corresponding author: David A. Donoso ( david.donosov@gmail.com )

This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Escobar-Ramírez S, García-Ruilova AB, Moreno-Buitrón IJ, Núñez M, Flores-Males PT, Torres M, Donoso DA (2025) A first look at COI barcodes of Galapagos Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e163406

Abstract

Despite recent efforts, species identities of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Galapagos Islands remain problematic, especially when identifying alate castes (e.g., males and gynes) commonly collected during surveys with mass sampling techniques. To aid myrmecological research, we provide barcodes of 1,181 specimens (929 workers, 86 gynes, and 166 males) from 36 species and 17 genera, collected with malaise and pitfall traps, and manual searches, at four islands in the Archipelago. Representing these species, we found 40 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs). From these, 24 BINs (20 spp.) belong to worldwide invasive ant species like Brachymyrmex patagonicus Mayr, 1868 and Monomorium sahlbergi Emery, 1898. The remaining 16 BINs (16 spp.) are from non-invasive species that are currently either endemic to the Archipelago or match with species in continental Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica. Along with museum voucher specimens, our COI barcodes provide a permanent registry of ant species in the Galapagos.

Keywords

Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), COI barcodes, Galapagos ants, Native and introduced ants, Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP)