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The genus Cyparium Erichson, 1845 (Staphylinidae, Scaphidiinae, Cypariini) comprises 55 species, distributed mainly in the Neotropical and Oriental regions. Twenty-four species are known from the Neotropical region, but only eight species are reported from Brazil. In this paper we describe five new species and redescribe two species of Brazilian Cyparium, as follows: Cyparium achardi sp. nov., C. lescheni sp. nov., C. loebli sp. nov., C. newtoni sp. nov., C. pici sp. nov.; Cyparium collare Pic, 1920; and Cyparium oberthueri Pic, 1956. We provide images of adult males and females and their dissected parts, and information on host fungi whenever available. We also provide a comparative plate of dorsal colour patterns of Neotropical Cyparium.
The worldwide transport of species beyond their native range is an increasing problem, e.g. for global biodiversity. Many introduced species are able to establish in new environments and some even become invasive. However, we do not know which traits enable them to survive and reproduce in new environments. This study aims to identify the characteristics of exotic ants, and to quantitatively test previously postulated but insufficiently tested assumptions. We collected data on nine traits of 93 exotic ant species (42 of them being invasive) and 323 native ant species in North America. The dataset includes 2536 entries from over 300 different sources; data on worker head width were mostly measured ourselves. We analyzed the data with three complementary analyses: univariate and multivariate analyses of the raw data, and multivariate analyses of phylogenetically independent contrasts. These analyses revealed significant differences between the traits of native and exotic ant species. In the multivariate analyses, only one trait was consistently included in the best models, estimated with AICc values: colony size. Thus, of the nine investigated traits, the most important characteristic of exotic ants as compared to native ants appears to be their large colony size. Other traits are also important, however, indicating that native and exotic ants differ by a suite of traits.