Taxonomic diversity of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) assemblages in forest remnants in the Northeast of Argentina

Abstract

Argentina is among the ten countries in the world with loss of large areas of forests in recent years. Deforestation leads to an inevitable loss of biodiversity and the fragmentation of natural environments, with increased extinctions of species in small patches. Ants are present in all terrestrial ecosystems and play key ecological roles. This study aimed to analyse how ant assemblages vary in different forest remnants of the Northeast Argentina (NEA) from the approach of taxonomic diversity, which involve the linnean classifications relationships of the taxa. The ants were collected by hand collecting and pitfall trapping techniques in theforests of 15 NEA localities during the warm months in 2015-2018. In total, 600 samples, 10741 individuals and 94 ant species were obtained. In this way, 94 species distributed in 41 genera, 14 tribes and 9 subfamilies were obtained. Myrmicinae, Fomicinae and Ponerinae presented the highest specific richness. The results of taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and average taxonomic variation (Λ+) demonstrated that all localities fell within the expected average for estimated models. The beta diversity, measured by the species dissimilarity (1-βJ) and taxonomic dissimilarity (1-∆T), reflected in the NMDS and cluster analyses, proved that the localities in the Iberá Reserve (Corrientes), differ from the rest both in the specific composition and in the phylogenetic relationships between them. This could indicate a typical ant microfauna of the Iberá Reserve.