DIVERSITY OF GROUND DWELLING ANTS (HYMENOPETRA: FORMICIDAE) IN RAJBIRAJ, SAPTARI, NEPAL
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Amrit Campus
Abstract
Ants are important in terms of biodiversity as they are the most diverse, abundant and ecologically
significant organisms onearth. Ants werecollected usingpitfall traps, baittraps and manual collection in
three different habitats viz. forest, cultivated land and grass land in springandwinterseasons.Thisstudy
documentedtheant’sgeneraandassessspeciesrichness and their diversity in different habitats and seasons
using different methods. Altogether 1350 antswerecollectedrepresentingfoursubfamilies,17genera
and36morphspecies.Formicinae was the most dominant sub-family (62.59%), followed by
Myrmicinae (22.59%), Ponerinae (13.92%),Pseudomyrmicinae(0.89%).Camponotous was
themostabundantgenusaswellas themostadaptedgenuswhichwasmostspeciousgenus(12
morphospecies).Amongthethree sites, the similarity index (0.85) was found highest between forest
and grassland. Species richness (10), Shannon diversity index (0.97) and abundance (448) were
higher in spring in comparison to winter season. Similarly species richness (17), Shannon diversity
index (1.03) and evenness (0.36) were found highest in forest, while species abundance was least in
cultivate land. The One-way ANOVA concluded that relationships between habitats and ant diversity
as well as with seasons were statitistically insignificant as the p<0.05. Pitfall trap was most effective method
for ants collection as the ants collected through this method was maximum (946) as compared to bait
trap (404) and manual hand collection in all habitats and seasons.