We present here, for the first time, data on species richness and abundance of subterranean ant assemblages in southern Brazil, based on a research on the subterranean ant fauna in 9 sites in Seara, West of Santa Catarina State, in the domain of Tropical Atlantic Forest, comparing our results with those of a leaf litter ant fauna survey conducted in the same region. We collected in both soil and litter samples 113 ant species belonging to 37 genera. Ants were much less species rich in soil samples (71 species in 24 genera), while in leaf litter we collected 81 ant species in 36 genera. These habitats share 39 ant species. Morisita-Horn similarity index indicated lower species overlap between soil and litter samples. The similarity values between sites can be considered medium. Overall, ordination analysis (nonmetric multidimensional scaling) indicated differences in community structure between ant litter and subterranean ant faunas, and showed that the spatial distribution of subterranean species is aggregated. Our results indicate that there is a strong complementarity between these two faunistics segments. We conclude that the subterranean ant fauna is an important component of ant species richness in the soil; therefore survey protocols should include soil samples for a better assessments of the ant diversity in tropical forests.
Formicidae; subterranean fauna; species richness; Atlantic Rainforest; Santa Catarina; Brazil
