Summary: | We surveyed ants in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2015 to 2019. Methods including repeated pitfall trap sampling and manual searching were used to collect ants at Providence College and a rapid biological assess-ment was conducted at Roger Williams Park. A total of 36 species were identified based on morphology, including the first observations of a colony of Needle Ants (Brachyponera chinensis Emery, 1895) in New England. Twenty-six species identified were new county records and seven species were new state records, representing a substantial update to the list of known ant species in Rhode Island, currently totaling 41 species in Providence and 69 spe-cies from six subfamilies across the state. These results are comparable with similarly scaled surveys conducted at parks and cities across the world, and they also offer a reminder that while urbanization can be associated with reductions in habitat availability for some fauna, cities can be accessible and ecologically important locations for exploring myrmecological biodiversity.
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