Abstract
Ants occur in all strata of tropical forest by nesting, foraging and interacting with plants and other resident in these habitats. It is know that a large number of ant species live in the leaflitter and soil. This study aim to know if the occurrence of the species of ants from Cerrado of the Northeastern State of Maranhão depends on the attributes of soils and climatic factors. We found 48 species of ants, and ten of them had highest importance value, and are correlated with the soil properties, litter biomass, basal area, humidity and temperature, by using principal component analysis (PCA). The soil properties (density, porosity, particle size, aggregate stability index, and levels of Mg2+, Ca2+, carbon and potential acidity); vegetation (basal area and dry mass of litter) and temperature and humidity at soil level affect the occurrence of the following ants species Camponotus comatulus Mackay, 2010, Ectatomma muticum Mayr, 1870, Pseudomyrmex boopis (Roger, 1863), Pseudomyrmex termitarius (Smith, 1855), Dinoponera gigantea (Peerty, 1833), Ochetomyrmex neopolitus Fernández, 2003, Crematogaster cf acuta, Pheidole casta Wheeler, 1908, Solenopsis bruesi Creighton, 1930 and Solenopsis. Substituta Santschi, 1925.
Highlights
Ants are the most widely distributed and abundant social insects
The associations of these ants to different conditions found in Cerrado can be an adjustment or response to its diversity of habitats because the selectivity of ants from such habitat described by Pacheco and Vasconcelos (2012) show that Cerrado physiognomies are richer in ant species than in homogeneous forest formations
The nests of P. termitarius found in open areas from Cerrado, mainly in soil, contradict the results found by Dejean et al (2014), Ward and Downie (2005)
Summary
Ants are the most widely distributed and abundant social insects. They are found in almost all Earth habitats, except the Earth Poles (Harada & Ketelhut, 2009). Ants can be found in canopies, litter, and soil. Ants have high economic and ecological value because they can significantly influence their environments by incorporating nutrients, aerating soils, and regulating populations of other organisms (Nakano et al, 2013). Identification and ecological characterization of ant communities, as well as studies designed for controlling pest species, have been the subject of both basic and applied research in most of the Brazilian ecosystems, in Savanna areas (Cerrado Biome)
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