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A Comparative Study of Two Ant Faunas: The Stem-Nesting Ant Communities of Liberia, West Africa and Costa Rica, Central America

1979; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 113; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/283412

1537-5323

C. Ronald Carroll,

Animal Behavior and Reproduction

Compared to Costa Rica, the arboreal ant fauna of Liberia is characterized by low numbers of species and a low frequency of occupied stems in tree crowns. The most common ant in the relatively depauperate fauna of Liberia was tectorum sp. This species failed to show any numerical effects of competitive release and no increase in array of nest types. It is suggested that the abundance of pseudomyrmecine ants, (Pseudomyrmex and Tetraponera), is constrained by limiting nest sites. It is hypothesized that the relatively low biomass of stem-nesting ants in Liberian tree crowns is a function of the depressant effect of other aggressive arboreal species, such as Oecophylla, that have less restrictive nest-site requirements. The relatively low number of arboreal species of ants in Liberia is most plausibly a function of historical events, perhaps dating from the early Pleistocene.