Browsing by Author "Hsu, Feng-Chuan"

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    Free ride without raising a thumb: A citizen science project reveals the pattern of active ant hitchhiking on vehicles and its ecological implications
    Hsu, Feng-Chuan; Hsu, Gen-Chang; Lee, Ching-Chen; Lin, Chung-Chi; Ho, Chuan-Kai; Yang, Chin-Cheng Scotty (Wiley, 2024-04)
    1. Species hitchhiking on human transportation objects such as vehicles can facilitate long-distance dispersal of organisms, allowing increased probabilities of successful biological invasions. In Taiwan, there have been observations of ants actively moving onto motor vehicles (defined as ‘ant hitchhiking’ hereafter), yet no study has explored this phenomenon. 2. Here, we provide the first qualitative and quantitative report on ant hitchhiking behaviour using citizen science data. From 2017 to 2023, 52 cases of ant hitchhiking on vehicles were reported (at least three cases with queen[s] and another eight cases with brood), attributed to nine species. Seven of the nine species were exotic/invasive. Arboreal or semi-arboreal ant species, particularly the exotic black cocoa ant (Dolichoderus thoracicus), accounted for over half of the reported cases. The parking duration of the vehicles on which the ants hitchhiked ranged from several hours to over a month (30 cases occurred within a day). Moreover, more cases were reported in the warmer seasons (spring and summer) than in the colder seasons (fall and winter). 3. To our knowledge, this study represents the first effort to profile active ant hitchhiking on vehicles. We encourage future studies to examine the abiotic and biotic factors that determine the success of hitchhiking events to better predict the spread of exotic/invasive ants and to develop effective management strategies for preventing their biological invasions.
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    Invasion of the little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger, 1863) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Taiwan
    Hsu, Po-Wei; Lee, Ching-Chen; Hsu, Feng-Chuan; Tseng, Shu-Ping; Shih, Chun-Han; Tay, Jia-Wei; Hsiao, Yu-Chun; Yang, Chin-Cheng Scotty; Lin, Chung-Chi (Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre-Reabic, 2022-11)
    The little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata is an invasive species native to Central and South America. We report the establishment of this species in Taiwan, which is also the first confirmed population in the East Asian region. Little fire ants were found at two locations in central Taiwan, separated by approximately 30 km. Genetic and behavioral analyses indicated that the two populations both employ clonal reproduction and showed no aggression towards each other. Results of population genetic analyses indicate that the two populations are most likely derived from a common source population or genetically similar populations.