Summary:
The litter ant fauna was sampled by Winkler sacks and pitfall traps along transects running through Atlantic rain forest into an adjacent grassland. Transects ran 65m into the forest and 45m into the field. Ninety-seven species of ants were sampled and scored, 85 were found in the forest, 48 were found in the field and 36 were common to both habitats. There was some evidence that species richness was lowest in the field and high at the deepest point within the forest. The composition of the ant community at the different distances into the forest and field was analysed by a number of hierarchical clustering procedures and also by ordinating the data in three-dimensional space. A two-way table of the ant assemblages derived from the clustering procedure versus the groupings of transect distances obtained by the same procedure indicated that certain ant species had preferences for the field or particular distances into the forest. It is concluded that although the ant fauna of Atlantic rain forest is severely affected by clearing, a forest-like ant fauna is able to persist right up to the interior edge of the forest.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 23 October 1996; revised 2 January 1997; accepted 26 March 1997.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Majer, J., Delabie, J. & McKenzie, N. Ant litter fauna of forest, forest edges and adjacent grassland in the Atlantic rain forest region of Bahia, Brazil. Insectes soc. 44, 255–266 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s000400050046
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s000400050046