Diversity and temporal variation of ants (hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Malaise traps in a tropical deciduous forest

Abstract

The ant community from the shrub layer in a tropical deciduous forest was sampled for two years with Malaise traps. A total of 1,256 ants belonging to 48 species and 21 genera were collected. The most abundant species were Eciton burchelli, Crematogaster brevispinosa and Pheidole sp. 1, which represented more than 60% of the total. A time series analysis was performed to evaluate the seasonality in the ant abundance. This showed a cyclical pattern, with a displacement around 15 days between the first rain and the abundance peak of ants. A significant positive correlation was found between precipitation and ant abundance, while the temperature did not have a significant relationship. The use of Malaise traps is useful to characterize the structure of the community of ants in the shrub layer.