Associations of ant species to land cover types and human disturbance in south‐west Gabon

Abstract

We recorded ground-foraging ant species in forest and savannah habitats along a 52-km-long road planned for upgrade in the buffer zone of the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in south-west Gabon. Sixty stations were established with three sampling points on each side of the future road and baited with peanut butter to record the presence of invasive Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger, 1863). We documented 46 ant species including one genus and eight species not previously reported in Gabon, but no evidence of the presence of W. auropunctata. We also found species known to have an opportunistic behaviour such as Cardiocondyla emeryi (Forel, 1881), Tetramorium simillimum (Smith, 1851) and Trichomyrmex destructor (Jerdon, 1851). Species richness in forested stations was significantly higher than in savannah. Among the most common ant species in the area, we identified 13 associated with forests, eight associated with savannahs and one generalist. Four species were highly tolerant to human disturbance. Our study, even if biased towards stress-tolerant species, provides new insights about ant species associations with habitats and contributes to the establishment of a reference system to classify African ant species that could be used to monitor the success of restoration of areas impacted by human activities.