Ants From Three Remote Oceanic Islands

THREE REMOTE OCEANIC ISLANDS By ROBERT W. TAYLOR and EDWARD O. WILSON Biological Laboratories, Harvard University The three islands (Raoul, Clipperton, St. Helena) whose ant faunas are. described below have in common only extreme geographic isolation. That ants occur on them at all confirms the idea that these insects, with man’s, help, have now populated every part of the earth capable of supporting them. These and other remote oceanic islands will undoubtedly attract more of the ecologist’s attention in the future, since many animal taxa inhabiting them, including most or all of the ant species, have only arrived within historical times and present simple case histories of faunas in the first stages of local adaptation. We are grateful to Dr. J. S. Edwards, Dr. C. F. Harbinson, Mr. Arthur Loveridge and Dr. B. A. Holloway of the Dominion Museum, Wellington, New Zealand, for making these unusual collections available. The study has been supported in part by a research grant from the National Science Foundation. RAOUL ISLAND, KERMADEC ISLANDS The Kermadecs are a group of forest-clad volcanic islands lying in the South Pacitc between S. lat., 29.IO and 31.3o; and W. long., 77.45 and 79.00. The nearest sizable land mass is the North Island of New Zealand, about 650 miles to the southwest, and the nearest major Polynesian island is Tongatabu of the Tongan group, aboiat 700 miles to the north. Australia lies about 1,7oo miles to the west. The ants listed below were taken on Raoul or Sunday Island, the largest of the group (I.25 sq. miles), or on its tiny outlier, Meyer Island. Most of the material was collected during June I956 for the University of Auckland, New Zealand, by Dr. J. S. Edwards of Cambridge University. A few records are from the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, or from the Dominion Museum, Wellington, New Zealand. Unless otherwise noted all collections were made by Dr. Edwards. The collection includes a number of Berlese funnel samples as well as hand-collected specimens, and although only three species are listed, it is thought that they represent most, if not all, those present on Raoul in 956. Ponera gleadowi Forel The systematics and distribution of this ant have been discussed by Wilson (I958). P. gleadowi is a widespread species, originalIl