See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302920845 Ant species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of forest fragments and urban areas in a Meridional Amazonian landscape Article in Check List · May 2016 DOI: 10.15560/12.3.1885 READS 46 3 authors, including: Ricardo Eduardo Vicente Rodrigo Machado Feitosa Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT) Universidade Federal do Paraná 12 PUBLICATIONS 13 CITATIONS 51 PUBLICATIONS 146 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Rodrigo Machado Feitosa letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 17 May 2016 12 3 1885 the journal of biodiversity data 11 May 2016 Check List LISTS OF SPECIES Check List 12(3): 1885, 11 May 2016 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15560/12.3.1885 ISSN 1809-127X © 2016 Check List and Authors Ant species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of forest fragments and urban areas in a Meridional Amazonian landscape Lorhaine Santos-Silva1, Ricardo E. Vicente2 and Rodrigo M. Feitosa3 1 Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Acervo Biológico da Amazônia Meridional (ABAM), Laboratório de Ecologia e Taxonomia de Artrópodes Terrestres, Avenida Alexandre Ferronato, Setor Industrial 78557-267, Sinop, MT, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Laboratório de Ecologia de Comunidades, Instituto de Biociências, Av. Fernando Correa da Costa s/n, Coxipó, 78557-267, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil 3 Universidade Federal do Paraná, Departamento de Zoologia, Caixa Postal 19020, 81531-980, Centro Politécnico, Curitiba, PR, Brazil * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: In this paper we list the ant species collected the Brazilian ant fauna are historically concentrated in in both remaining forests and urban areas in a South areas of the Cerrado (Schoereder et al. 2010; Camacho Amazonian landscape. The list includes 102 species, of and Vasconcelos 2015), Atlantic Forest (Silva et al. 2007; which 29 are new records for the state of Rondônia, Melo et al. 2014), and more recently in some localities Brazil. This work demonstrates the gap in ant biodiversity of the Pantanal (Battirola et al. 2005; Silva et al. 2013) surveys for Meridional Amazon as well as encouraging and Caatinga (Neves et al. 2013; Ulyssea and Brandão further research in this region. 2013). However, local surveys in the Brazilian Amazon have focused primarily on the central and eastern areas Key words: Amazon Forest; anthropic species; (Santos et al. 2008; Harada et al. 2013; Miranda et al. Neotropical Region; Rondônia; taxonomic gap; 2012). disturbance specialists Rondônia is a Brazilian state located near the border with Bolivia, in the meridional Amazon, whose biodiversity is not well known (Petini-Benelli 2015), INTRODUCTION especially regarding ants. To contribute to the knowledge Considering the arthropods that inhabit the soil or the of the ant diversity of the region that represents one canopy of tropical forests, ants (Insecta, Hymenoptera, of the main taxonomic gaps for the Neotropical fauna, Formicidae) are among the most abundant organisms, this paper lists the ant species found in urban areas and accounting for 90% of the individuals and up to 95% Amazon Forest fragments in the municipality of Cacoal, of the animal biomass in some localities (Moffett Rondônia, Brazil. 2000). Ants are a diverse group of eusocial insects both morphologically and behaviorally with about 13,000 MATERIALS AND METHODS described species (Kaspari 2005; Brandão et al. 2009; The study was conducted in the municipality of Bolton 2015). They play key roles in the environment, Cacoal, Rondônia, Brazil, a South Amazonian landscape, interacting with many organisms (Toro et al. 2012; in the coordinates 11°26ʹ19ʺ S, 061°26ʹ50ʺ W (Figure 1). Gallego-Ropero et al. 2013; Vicente et al. 2014), including Samples were collected between May and August 2013 other ants (Toro et al. 2012; Powell et al. 2014), and in 24 locations, including 16 collecting sites in urban are considered ecosystem engineers (Toro et al. 2012). backyards, with different distances, sizes and periods Therefore, ants are excellent models for biodiversity of human occupation, and eight collection sites in assessments and reliable biological indicators given forest fragments surrounding the city, also different in their high diversity, easy sampling and relatively well- size, matrix types and degrees of conservation (Figure settled taxonomy (Agosti et al. 2000). 2). At all sampling sites two collection methodologies Despite the importance of ant inventories to support were used. In the first methodology 10 attractive decision-making and mitigation plans of biodiversity traps containing about 1 cm3 of carbohydrate (honey) loss (Alonso and Agosti 2000) and ant diversity in and protein (sardine) baits were placed. All traps were the Neotropical region (Kempf 1972; Brandão 1991; randomly exposed at an average distance of 5 m from Fernandez and Sendoya 2004), local inventories of each other, at ground level, for a period of about 1 Check List | www.biotaxa.org/cl 1 Volume 12 | Number 3 | Article 1885 Santos-Silva et al. | Ant species of Cacoal, Rondônia, Brazil Figure 1. Map showing the state of Rondônia, the municipality of Cacoal (black area), and the sampling perimeter (white circle). Figure 2. Collecting points at the municipality of Cacoal, state of Rondônia. Urban backyards are represented by yellow circles and forest fragments by yellow squares. Scale bar: 4.8 km. hour. In the second methodology, an area of 10 m2 the previously defined areas, such as buildings, wood was demarcated, where active search was conducted to piles, construction waste, vegetation, rotting logs, capture all the individuals found foraging within the twigs, and litter. Although the distance between the bait perimeters of the collection site during a period of one may have generated a subsampling (see Baccaro et al. hour, with the help of tweezers, brushes and plastic vials 2011), the complementarity of the methods may have containing alcohol. In this methodology, an exhaustive minimized this problem, which is corroborated by the search was conducted in most of the micro-habitats of high diversity of ants sampled in this study. Check List | www.biotaxa.org/cl 2 Volume 12 | Number 3 | Article 1885 Santos-Silva et al. | Ant species of Cacoal, Rondônia, Brazil The ants collected were initially identified with the five are known worldwide as tramp ants, including dichotomous key of Fernández (2003) to the genus Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793), Wasmannia level and then separated into morphotypes. Later, they auropunctata (Roger, 1863) (except for Neotropical were identified to species following the bibliographic region from where it is native), Tetramorium bicarinatum information present in the same work and deposited in (Nylander, 1846), Brachymyrmex patagonicus Mayr, the Coleção Entomológica Padre Jesus Santiago Moure 1868, and Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802); the of the Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade last three represent new occurrence records for the state Federal do Paraná (DZUP), Brazil. The classification of Rondônia. follows Bolton (2015). To determine the distribution of species we consulted the interactive map AntMaps.org DISCUSSION (2015), an application created based on bibliographic The overall species richness found in this inventory database of the Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics corresponds to that reported in other ant surveys (GABI) Project. The database, updated weekly, has so (Ryder-Wilkie et al. 2010; Neves et al. 2013; Melo et al. far compiled ca. 1.6 million records for about 15,000 2014). Myrmicinae, Formicinae and Ponerinae are the species/subspecies in 8,430 publications, museum subfamilies with higher generic and specific diversity, collections and specimen databases (Economo et al. respectively (Bolton 2015). The same is true for the 2015). We also performed a search using the Scopus genera Camponotus and Pheidole that presented a high and ISI Web of Science portals to identify papers on diversity in this study, and are also the more speciose taxonomic revisions, biology, distribution, and also ant genera in the world (Fernández and Sendoya 2004; regional lists of species. Ryder-Wilkie et al. 2010). Pheidole, for example, is known Figure 1 was made using the R software v. 3.2.1 (R for its hyper-diversity with more than 1,000 described Core Team 2015) with the packages dismo (Hinmans et species (Wilson 2003; Bolton 2015) of which about al. 2015) and maptools (Bivand and Lewin-Koh 2015) 460 occur in the Neotropical Region (Fernández and and Figure 2 with Google Earth™. Sendoya 2004). Camponotus has about 1,100 described species worldwide, of which about 350 are Neotropical RESULTS (Fernández and Sendoya 2004; Bolton 2015). A total of 102 ant species was recorded, belonging to Many of the species collected here have wide distri- eight subfamilies and 38 genera (Table 1). The subfamily butions, including the Amazon biome (Fernández and with the highest number of species was Myrmicinae (53 Sendoya 2004; Miranda et al. 2012; Lutinski et al. 2013). species), followed by Formicinae (18), Ponerinae (13), However, 29 species are recorded for the first time in Ectatomminae and Pseudomyrmicinae (six species), Rondônia, including some species considered tramp Dolichoderinae (five), and Dorylinae and Paraponerinae ants such as Brachymyrmex patagonicus, Paratrechina (one species). The richest