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Canopy assemblages of ants in a New Guinea rain forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Milan Janda  and
Martina Konečná
Milan Janda*
Affiliation:
Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Martina Konečná
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
*
1Corresponding author. Email: janda@entu.cas.cz
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Abstract:

The ant assemblages in two common tree species in primary lowland forest of New Guinea were explored using direct canopy access and tuna bait traps. The 19 trees investigated were occupied by 21 ant species of which 18 were canopy inhabitants. On average only 3.6 ant species per tree and 3 species per bait were found. Height of bait position was positively related to ant species richness, with the upper parts of the canopy being occupied by the highest number of species. On the other hand, tree species and study site did not have any effect on ant species richness nor on structure of the ant assemblages. Ant species appeared to be distributed randomly and we did not detect any effect of distance on similarity of ant assemblage occurring on the trees. The dominant species (Crematogaster polita) had certain negative effects on the presence of some species at food sources co-occurring at the same tree, but it did co-occur with the other ants to some extent as well. The majority of species found in the canopy were generalist omnivores (depending mainly on trophobionts or plant exudates).

Keywords

bait trapscanopydominanceforaging activityinterspecific interactions
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 83 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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