Two new localities of Sri Lankan Relict Ant Aneuretus simoni Emery, 1893 (Formicidae: Aneuretinae) with the very first record in the intermediate zone

Abstract

*[Aneuretus simoni, an ant species endemic to Sri Lanka, is the only extant species of the subfamily Aneuretinae & is classified as critically endangered. Currently this species is only known from the island few wet zone forests. During a litter ant study in Knuckles mountain range, this rare ant was discovered from 2 new locations; Moraella rain forest (wet zone), & semi evergreen forests at Rambukoluwa (intermediate zone), extending the range of A. simoni within the wet zone & to the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka for the first time. Litter ant fauna of the 2 forests was sampled by laying 3 100-m transects at each forest. On both sides along each transect, 1x1-m quadrates were installed at 20-m interval & the ants were collected using Winkler extraction & hand picking. A total of 155 A. simoni workers were collected from Moraella rain forest (relative abundance 1%) & from semi evergreen forest (relative abundance 2.6%), with 92% of the workers being solely collected from Winkler extraction. Rainfall of 2000-mm seems to be an important factor determining the distribution of A. simoni. Random collection of ants in semi evergreen forests showed that A. simoni inhabits forest edges as well, implying that this species does not require deep rain forest condition for survival.]