Local and regional richness and rarity of leaf-litter ants: An overview from spacial scale in neotropical region

Abstract

*[An unusual approach about richness & rarity of leaf-litter ant species is presented here from a dry forest in Pantanal province (Chacoan subregion) suggesting the boundaries that defining local & regional scales for this particular ant community. We analyzed the frequency of distribution of 170 ant species collected on 262 Winkler samples along Serra da Bodoquena National Park, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil & described some ecological mechanisms that made the species richness estimates be highly influenced by species with low frequencies of records in an extent regional of a pristine dry forest. Bayesian inference was conducted to provide if the probability of latitudinal gradient was correlated with the species richness to define alpha diversity.] We recorded 170 species of leaf-litter ants on dry forests inside the Bodoquena mountain range National Park. For the complete species list see: Silvestre, R., Demétrio, M.F. and Delabie, J.H.C., 2012, Community structure of leaf-litter ants in a neotropical dry forest: A biogeographic approach to explain betadiversity, Psyche 2012, Article ID 306925, 15 p.