Ant (Formicidae) Assemblages Associated with Piper spp. (Piperaceae) in the Undergrowth of an Atlantic Rainforest Remnant in Southeastern Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

We studied ant assemblages associated with plants of genus Piper (Piperaceae) in the undergrowth of a fragment of Atlantic Forest in Southeastern of State of Bahia. The study was conducted in Serra Bonita Natural Reserve, in Camacan and Pau-Brazil municipalities. Hand collections of ants were made on four species of Piper during seven months; 56 ant species were collected. The genus Camponotus, Pheidole and Crematogaster were the most abundant. We highlighted the occurrence of Linepithema spp. given their scarce records in the region. Few ants were observed simultaneously (up to five) per plant during each survey. Rarefaction curves showed that collections were not exhaustive. The Shannon index showed that Piper caldense presented the largest ant diversity occurrence, perhaps due to its higher amount of resources available. The ant community in the undergrowth of the Atlantic forest appears to be diverse, although the species found in Piper constitute only a fraction of the diversity that really occurs in this stratum of the forest.

Keywords

• Diversity
• Linepithema
• RPPN Serra Bonita.