The ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of a one-hectare plot of lowland dipterocarp forest

Abstract

A multiple-method survey of just one hectare of lowland dipterocarp forest in Brunei yielded 115 species or morphospecies of ants of which 102 have been identified to species. No fewer than 24 of these are new records for Borneo. We list these species with comments on their wider distributions. Almost half of these species (44%) are endemic to the Sundaland region, with a further 20% restricted to south-east Asia. Few local species crossed the Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi suggesting that Wallace's Line is a relevant biogeographical barrier for many ant species. The trapping methods used generally targeted contrasting groups of species. The methods that yielded most ant species were canopy knockdown using pyrethrin insecticide (43%), pitfall trapping (26%), leaf litter extraction (9.5%) and bark spraying (8.6%). Our results suggest that future tropical forest ant surveys should include canopy sampling.