Global distribution of the invasive little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata: first insights from citizen science contributions
The little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata is among the world’s most damaging invasive ants, with pronounced ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic impacts. Originally native to the Neotropics, its range has expanded globally through human-mediated transport, with more recent records demonstra...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositório: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/408140 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/408140 https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/17854 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | iNaturalist Alien ants Expert validation Biogeography exotic species Hormigas invasoras Validación por expertos Biogeografía Especies exóticas ants biological invasions |
| Resumo: | The little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata is among the world’s most damaging invasive ants, with pronounced ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic impacts. Originally native to the Neotropics, its range has expanded globally through human-mediated transport, with more recent records demonstrating its establishment in southern Europe. The objective of this paper is to update the global distribution of W. auropunctata by integrating curated citizen-science observations with bibliographic data. For this purpose, we used the observations available on the online platform iNaturalist, as it provides a large, georeferenced, and publicly accessible dataset of ant records contributed by citizens worldwide. From 1,548 initial observations, we excluded those with low spatial precision, captive conditions, restricted copyright, or from native areas, leaving 703 records for expert review. Each record was independently assessed by three reviewers for identification accuracy, photo quality, environment, and visible castes. In parallel, we incorporated an updated dataset of literature records and museum specimens, including 17,637 occurrences with geographic coordinates. After filtering, 461 iNaturalist observations (65.7%) were validated, most of them belonging to workers. Validation success was much higher for “Research Grade” records (≈70%) than for “Needs ID” observations (≈36%), showing that iNaturalist’s internal quality filter—based on community agreement between users—already improves reliability, although expert review remains essential for ants. Valid records were associated with significantly higher image quality than invalid ones. Interobserver agreement was moderate for identification validity, substantial for photo quality, high for caste recognition, and low for indoor/outdoor classification. The citizen-science dataset, once validated, broadly matched the distribution documented in the literature and provided new insights into the species’ presence across various biogeographic regions. Overall, the integration of citizen-science and literature sources yields a more comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the worldwide distribution of W. auropunctata. |
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