Diversity of Ants in Different Bamboo Forest Types on Limestone Hills, Community Forest in Kanchanaburi Province

Abstract

This research investigated ants in four different bamboo forest types: 1) mixed bamboo forest between Thyrsostachys siamensis Gamble amd Gigantochloa albociliata (Munro) Kurz; 2) T. siamensis Gamble; 3) Gigantochloa densa and 4) Gigantochloa albociliata (Munro) Kurz. on limestone hills, Pu-Teuy Community forest in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand from December 2017 – March 2018. Ants were collected using honey baiting and hand collecting methods. A total of 48 species of ants, belonging to 30 genera in eight subfamilies, were collected. In four types of bamboo forests examined 27, 27, 26 and 24 species of ants were found in a mixed bamboo forest between G. albociliata and T.siamensis, a T. siamensis bamboo forest, a G.densa bamboo forest and a G.albociliata bamboo forest, respectively. Total species richness of ants did not differ significantly among the four types of bamboo forest. The most common ant species were the native Diacama vargens, Odontoponera denticulata, Pheidole inornata and Pheidole pieli, which occurred in 100%, 79.17%, 62.50% and 62.50% of the samples, and the exotic invaders Tapinoma melanocephalum, Anoplolepis gracilipes, Paratrechina longicornis and Monomorium pharaonis which were in 88.33%, 62.50%, 50% and 50% of samples, respectively. The G. densa bamboo forest, especially, had abundant leaf litter and fertile soil, and some rarer more cryptic ant genera, e.g. Pheidole tandjongensis, Odontomachus rixosus, Ectomomyrmex astuta and Ectomomyrmex sp. 1, were found in the leaf litter or rotting wood. This study found that biodiversity is similar to the study of the diversity of ants in other parts of Thailand.