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Journal of Threatened Taxa The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Diversity of ants in Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai, India Akshay Gawade & Amol P. Patwardhan 26 July 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 8 | Pages: 19108–19117 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6375.13.8.19108-19117 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19108–19117 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6375.13.8.19108-19117 #6375 | Received 08 July 2020 | Final received 21 January 2021 | Finally accepted 07 July 2021 SHORT COMMUNICATION Diversity of ants in Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai, India Akshay Gawade 1 & Amol P. Patwardhan 2 1 B.N. Bandodkar College of Science, Thane 400601. Maharashtra. India. 2 Department of Zoology, K.J. Somaiya College of Science and Commerce, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400077, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: Aarey Milk Colony (AMC) is 16km2 of forested area, acts as units. a bufer to the Sanjay Gandhi Natonal Park, Mumbai. It has gardens, Among invertebrates, insects are the most abundant lakes, recreaton spots, and a nursery. It also harbors 32 catle farms, animal husbandry centers. Apart from urbanizaton and forest and diverse organisms on Earth, as most of the insects degradaton, this forest harbors great biodiversity which includes are highly mobile, their presence in an ecosystem the leopard as a top predator and also lesser-known species of amphibians, reptles, and arthropods. Considering ants as important may be temporary which limits their use to detect bio indicators and the vulnerability of AMC to development plans, a environmental changes (Khot et al. 2013). On the other study on the diversity of ants was conducted from January 2016 to hand, the ants being more local than other insects they May 2016. Four methods were used for data collecton of ants—pitall trap, line-transect, quadrate, and all-out search. A total of 35 species can be efciently used as a bio-indicator (Stephens & under 24 genera under six subfamilies– Myrmicinae, Formicinae, Wagner 2006; Underwood & Fisher 2006; Jonathan et Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae, Pseudomyrmecinae, and Cerapachyinae al. 2007; Abril & Gomez 2013). were recorded during this study. The Simpson’s diversity index (0.88) for the pit fall trap indicates that the diversity of ants in the AMC is Andersen et al. (2002) suggested that ants can fairly high. This increases the importance of this forest land which is provide valuable informaton about the environment presently facing a mass destructon of trees. in which they occur and considerably more than could Keywords: Bio indicator, data collecton, Maharashtra, Sanjay Gandhi traditonal wildlife (vertebrate) surveys. According to Natonal Park. Wilson (1990) and Gadagkar et al. (1993), the biomass of ants is approximately four tmes greater than the biomass of all of the vertebrates. Due to their abundance, high Aarey Milk Colony (AMC) was notfed in 1949 species richness, occupancy of high topographic level which covers an area of 16km2. It is situated on the and being highly responsive to environmental changes southwestern boundary of Sanjay Gandhi Natonal ants are considered as excellent bio-indicators (Jonathan Park, Mumbai. The colony acts as a bufer zone for the 1983). According to Bhart (2011), there are 652 species/ densely forested natonal park. The colony faces heavy subspecies that are known to occur in India. Khot et al. anthropogenic pressure such as illegal encroachment, (2012) recorded 28 species representng six subfamilies change in land use, which converted it into a garden, from Maharashtra Nature Park and Quadros et al. (2009) nursery, picnic spots, restaurants, and milk processing recorded 19 species of ants from IIT Bombay campus; Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 July 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Gawade, A. & A.P. Patwardhan (2021). Diversity of ants in Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(8): 19108–19117. htps:// doi.org/10.11609/jot.6375.13.8.19108-19117 Copyright: © Gawade & Patwardhan 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We gratefully thank the C.E.O. of Aarey Milk Dairy Pvt. Ltd, Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon, Mumbai and senior police inspector, Aarey Police Staton, AMC Goregaon, Mumbai for giving AG permission to carry out the research project in AMC and for supportng throughout the study. We would like to thank Dr. Poonam Kurve and Ashutosh Joshi of the Department of Environmental science of B.N. Bandodkar College of Science, Thane, for there valuable inputs. AG is grateful to Anand Pendharkar for suggestng the topic, valuable inputs, and help rendered during the pilot study. 19108 Diversity of ants in Aarey Milk Colony Gawade & Patwardhan J TT 163 species of ants, in 52 genera, were reported by Material and Methods Mathew & Tiwari (2000) from Meghalaya. Kharbani & The survey was carried out from January 2016 to Hajong (2009) recorded 28 species from 18 genera from May 2016. the West Khasi hills, Meghalaya. Bhart et al. (2009) Four sampling methods were deployed as follows. recorded 40 species of ants from eight genera from 1. Pitall trap (n= 52): Transparent plastc glasses Punjab Shivalik. having 7.5 cm diameter and 7.5 cm height were used The forest of AMC is of mixed moist deciduous type for pitall traps buried at ground level. In each trap and is dominated by Tectona grandis, Bombax ceiba, four plastc glasses were kept at the corner of 4 x 4 m Butea monosperma, Pongamia pinnata, Cassia fstula, quadrate. The traps were set up for 24 hr. The total area Ziziphus sp., heavily intermixed with exotc/invasive covered was 832 m2. The trap was observed regularly to species such as Eucalyptus, Gliricidia sepium as well as avoid predaton on ants, if any. Ants were released from Delonix regia and Lantana sp. (Mirza & Sanap 2010). the trap afer photo documentaton. According to Mirza & Sanap (2010) the faunal diversity 2. Line transect (n= 9): Line transects of 100 m of AMC includes 13 species of amphibians, 46 species of were ploted in the study site so that maximum area and reptles, 76 species of avifauna, 16 species of mammals, diferent habitats were covered. This method was used 86 species of buterfies, fve species of scorpions, and three tmes a day (morning, afernoon, and evening). 19 families of spiders. There is no reported work on the The total area covered by line transects was 1,800 m. ants of this area. 3. Quadrat method (n= 13): Four quadrates of 4 x AMC (Image 1) is under immense anthropogenic 4 m were placed in the selected study site. Each quadrat pressure. Hence the study on ants might be helpful in was observed for 10 min. throwing some light on the diversity of invertebrates 4. All-out search method (n= 30): This method that are about to get lost or displaced. was used to collect data opportunistcally. Image 1. Locaton of Aarey Milk Colony highlighted. (Courtsey: Google) Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19108–19117 19109 J TT Diversity of ants in Aarey Milk Colony Gawade & Patwardhan All the individuals recorded by the above four Table 1. Ant diversity in Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai, Maharashtra. methods were photographed using Canon 600D camera Figure Species Subfamily body with a 90mm macro lens and identfed using number Bingham (1903), Narendra & Kumar (2006), antweb 1 Aphaenogaster beccarii Myrmicinae 2 (htp://antweb.org/), and antwiki (htp://www.antwiki. 2 Cardiocondyla nuda Myrmicinae 3 org/wiki/). 3 Cataulacus taprobanae Myrmicinae 4 To have a basic idea of richness, pit fall trap data was 4 Crematogaster ransonnet Myrmicinae 5 utlized for calculatng Simpson’s diversity index. 5 Crematogaster subnuda Myrmicinae 6 6 Meranoplus bicolor Myrmicinae 7 Results 7 Monomorium criniceps Myrmicinae 8 A total of 35 species under 24 genera and six 8 Monomorium pharaonis Myrmicinae 9 subfamilies were recorded from the study area (Table 9 Myrmicaria brunnea Myrmicinae 10 1). Table 2 represents the dominance of the subfamilies. 10 Pheidole watsoni Myrmicinae 11 Myrmicinae (9 genera and 13 species) and Formicinae 11 Solenopsis geminata Myrmicinae 12 (6 genera and 11 species) were the most dominant 12 Tetramorium smithi Myrmicinae 13 subfamilies followed by Poneriane (5 genera and 6 13 Tetramorium walshi Myrmicinae 14 species); Dolichoderinae (2 genera and 2 species), 14 Camponotus angustcollis Formicinae 15 Pseudomyrmicinae (1 genus and 2 species), and 15 Camponotus compressus Formicinae 16 Cerapachynae (1 species).
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