DIVERSITY OF GROUND DWELLING ANTS (HYMENOPETRA: FORMICIDAE) IN RAJBIRAJ, SAPTARI, NEPAL

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.