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Rainforest ants of the Tiwi Islands: a remarkable centre of endemism in Australia’s monsoonal tropics

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Abstract

The small and isolated rainforest patches that are embedded in the predominantly savanna landscape of Australia’s monsoonal tropics support a highly distinctive and biogeographically significant ant fauna. This fauna features shade-tolerant taxa of Indo-Malayan origin, in contrast to the arid-adapted, endemic Australian taxa that dominate the surrounding savanna. The Tiwi Islands north of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT) receive the highest mean annual rainfall (up to 2,000 mm) in monsoonal Australia, and have a particularly extensive rainforest estate that has been poorly surveyed for invertebrates. Here we describe results from intensive ant surveys at 17 sites representing the full range of Tiwi rainforest types, using subterranean traps, Winkler sacs, pitfall traps and arboreal traps, supplemented by opportunistic hand collections. Our surveys yielded a total of 87 species from 37 genera, with the richest genera being Pheidole (9 species collected), Polyrhachis (8), Camponotus (5), Rhytidoponera (5) and Strumigenys (5). The overall structure and diversity of the Tiwi rainforest fauna is comparable to that of rainforest ant faunas on the Australian mainland. However, the species have exceptional biogeographic significance. At least 21 species across 12 genera have apparently never previously been collected, three species from subcoastal northeastern Australia are recorded for the first time in the NT, and the genera Mesoponera and Onychomyrmex are documented for the first time in the NT. There was a very low incidence of exotic species, which further highlights the conservation values of this remarkable fauna.

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Acknowledgments

We are most grateful to the Tiwi Land Council for welcoming us onto their land, and to Great Southern Plantations for accommodation and logistical support. We thank Magen Pettit, Jenna Brady, Michaela Nolan and Dale Carter for field and laboratory assistance, Phil Ward for his advice on Tetraponera sp. nr. laeviceps, and John Woinarski, Ben Hoffmann, David Yeates and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the draft manuscript. We also thank Michaela Nolan for preparing Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, PMB 44, Winnellie, Darwin, NT, 0822, Australia

    A. N. Andersen, M. Houadria & M. Berman

  2. University Joseph Fourier, UFR Biology, 2231 rue de la Piscine, Grenoble, 38014, Grenoble cedex 9, France

    M. Houadria

  3. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia

    M. Berman

  4. Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    M. Berman

  5. URS Australia, Level 3 91 Mitchell Street, Darwin, NT, 0800, Australia

    M. van der Geest

Authors
  1. A. N. Andersen
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  2. M. Houadria
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  3. M. Berman
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  4. M. van der Geest
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Correspondence to A. N. Andersen.

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Andersen, A.N., Houadria, M., Berman, M. et al. Rainforest ants of the Tiwi Islands: a remarkable centre of endemism in Australia’s monsoonal tropics. Insect. Soc. 59, 433–441 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-012-0238-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-012-0238-6

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