ABSTRACT
Ants are pests throughout Hawaii, in various environments. Endemic terrestrial arthropod populations have been decimated by ant predation at lower elevations throughout the islands. Ants also prey on imported natural enemies which may adversely affect the success of biological control programs in agriculture (Phillips 1934, Carter 1937) and endemic forests (Reimer 1988). The association of some ant species with aphids, scales, and mealybugs has contributed to increased populations of Homoptera and resulted in reduced crop yields. However, ants are sometimes beneficial and have, for example, preyed heavily on fruit flies (Pemberton and Willard 1918, Willard 1927, Wong et al. 1984, Wong and Wong 1988), house flies (Illingworth 1913, Phillips 1934), planthoppers (Muir 1915) and Lepidoptera (Swezey 1909, Illingworth 1915) in Hawaii.
