Abstract

For most invertebrates, ecologists lack efficient inventory methods for assessing geographic patterns of species richness, complementarity (distinctness), and areas of endemism. I evaluated the efficiency of quantitative inventory methods developed for leaf-litter ants in tropical rain forests in eastern Madagascar. The aim was to maximize the number of species captured per sampling effort in a systematic design subject to standard statistical analysis. I used species and complementarity accumulation curves to evaluate the efficiency of the inventory design based on all ant species sampled and based on four species-rich genera that could potentially act as surrogates for estimating total ant diversity. I evaluated: (1) efficiencies of pitfall and Winkler sifting methods to capture leaf-litter ant assemblages, (2) effects of sample size and spacing on completeness and ranking of species richness, (3) completeness of complementarity values, and (4) four species-rich ant genera that could potentially act as ...

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