The current ant species checklist for the whole of Yunnan Province was updated by recording 550 named species from 99 genera. These results highlight the rich ant fauna of this region and strongly support its status as a biodiversity hotspot. Moreover, we believe 41 novel morphospecies (31% of the total collected taxa) will prove to be new to science. Among them, 17 species from 13 genera represent new records for Yunnan province, and eight species are newly recorded for China. 130 species/morphospecies from nine subfamilies and 49 genera were identified. Here, the first checklist of ant species from the Southern Hengduan Mountain region is presented, generated by sampling ant diversity using a wide array of collection methods, including Winkler leaf litter extraction, vegetation beating, and hand collection. However, the insect biodiversity in this region is still poorly known. Its stunning topography with many deep valleys and impassable mountain barriers has promoted an astonishing diversification in many groups of organisms including plants, birds, mammals, and amphibians. The overall finding suggests that the litter ants do not reflect the holistic picture of arthropod diversity and assemblages in leaf litter, but the quality of the habitat for the survival of all litter arthropods.Ĭhina’s Hengduan Mountain region has been considered one of the most diverse regions in the northern hemisphere. But there was no significant correlation (p>0.05) between abundance and richness of litter ants and those of other arthropods in both vegetation types. Species assemblages composition of both ants and other arthropods differed significantly between the two sites (ANOSIM, p=0.001) with both groups generating distinct clusters for the two sites (SIMPROF, p=0.001). From the two sites, 1887 litter ants (34 species) and 3488 litter arthropods (52 species) were collected. In each vegetation type, arthropods were sampled using three sampling methods (Winkler extraction, hand collection, and pitfall traps) along three 100 m line transects. This study examined the suitability of litter ants as a focusing taxon by checking whether diversity and species assemblages of litter ants reflect the overall picture of arthropod diversity and assemblages in leaf litter in two vegetation types: secondary forest and pine plantation in Upper Hanthana forest reserve, Sri Lanka. Rapid Biodiversity Assessment approaches associated with focusing taxa have overcome many of the problems related to large scale surveys. Overall, our results suggest that the application of heating plates accelerates the extraction process while yielding large quantities of litter-dwelling animals. The extraction speed of macrofauna from the forest litter was strongly increased and the number of mites collected nearly doubled in the modified extractors, though the extraction rates of collembolans were not affected significantly. The heating plates increased the temperature within the extractors by about 8✬ and accelerated the desiccation of litter in the mesh bags. The study was performed at the end of the wet season in a mature forest and young forest plantation at Cat Tien National Park, southern Vietnam. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of the modified Winkler apparatus equipped with heating plates placed inside each mesh bag. This problem is exacerbated in a humid tropical climate. Abstract:The Winkler extractor is widely used for collecting both micro- and macrofauna from large samples of forest litter, but the long period of extraction that it demands and that allows continuous feeding and reproduction of target organisms is a serious drawback when samples are collected for subsequent stable isotope analysis.
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