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Richness and Composition of Ground-dwelling Ants in Tropical Rainforest and Surrounding Landscapes in the Colombian Inter-Andean Valley

  • Ecology, Behavior and Bionomics
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Abstract

Tropical rainforests are characterized by having high structural complexity, stratification, and species diversity. In Colombia, tropical rainforests are critically endangered with only 24% of their area remaining. Forest fragments are often valued based on the presence of vertebrate taxa despite that small habitat remnants may still harbor diverse invertebrate communities. We surveyed the ant fauna associated with rainforest fragments and their surrounding landscape elements (including mature forests, flooded forests, gallery forests, live fences, and pastures) in the Magdalena River watershed. Pitfall traps and litter samples were used to estimate ant richness and diversity, and to compare ant composition among landscape elements. We found 135 species from 42 genera, representing 16% of the species and 43% of the genera known for Colombia. Our surveys also uncovered 11 new ant records for the Colombian inter-Andean region and 2 new records for the country of Colombia: Mycocepurus curvispinosus (Mackay) and Rhopalothrix isthmica (Weber). The highest species richness was found in forest-covered sites, and richness and diversity was lower in the disturbed landscapes surrounding the forest patches. Species composition varied significantly between all habitat types, but was most similar between forest types suggesting that a loss of structural complexity has the greatest effect on ant communities. Across our study sites, ten species showed the greatest response to habitat type and could qualify as indicator taxa for this region. We conclude by discussing the value of conserving even small forests in this landscape due to their ability to retain high diversity of ants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Jack Longino for the corroboration of the new record of Rhopalothrix isthmica, and Juan Carlos Abadía for his invaluable help in data collection. We also thank Fundación Biodiversa and especially Fernando Arbeláez for giving us the logistical and financial support for this research. We appreciate the kindness of the landowners and forest administrators for permission to conduct this research. Finally, we thank the Suarez Lab members and three anonymous reviewers who made valuable comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Dept of Entomology, Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 S. Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    R Achury & A V Suarez

  2. Grupo de Investigación en Biología, Ecología y Manejo de Hormigas, Univ del Valle, Cali, Colombia

    R Achury

  3. Dept of Animal Biology, Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    A V Suarez

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Correspondence to R Achury.

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Achury, R., Suarez, A.V. Richness and Composition of Ground-dwelling Ants in Tropical Rainforest and Surrounding Landscapes in the Colombian Inter-Andean Valley. Neotrop Entomol 47, 731–741 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-017-0565-4

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