Distribuição espaço-temporal de formigas do gênero Crematogaster atraídas por Isca de sardinha em um plantio de jacareúba (Calophilum brasiliense) (Guttiferae) na Amazônia Central

Abstract

Ants have a high diversity of species due to their ability to adapt to different environments, especially in tropical areas (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990; Wilson, 1971). The genus Crematogaster is very diverse, making it taxonomically complex. In this work we intend to know the spatial-temporal distribution, the abundance and diversity of ant species of the genus Crematogaster in the soil and vegetation of a jacareúba (Calophilum brasiliense) plantation. The ants were collected with the help of sardine baits in a twenty-year-old Jacareúba plantation, located in the Experimental Station of Tropical Forestry of the National Institute of Amazon Research (EEST/Inpa), 45 km north of Manaus-AM. The study area (49m2), was subdivided into 7 transects, 10m apart, where 49 points were established, using sardine baits on the leaf litter and vegetation (about 1 m from the ground), and removed 30 minutes later. The material was sorted and identified at the morphospecies level. Five species of the genus Crematogaster were collected in the vegetation, as well as in the soil samples (1990-1993). Although this genus Crematogaster is arboreal, it was observed to be more abundant on the ground than in the vegetation. The species were more abundant in the rainy season (58%) than in the dry season (42%); the most abundant year in the dry season was 1993 (43.06%), and in the rainy season, 1992 was the most abundant (52.46%). In 1993, there was a decrease in the abundance of the species C. breuispinosa, Crematogaster sp2 and Crematogaster sp5 during the dry season, in the vegetation samples; in the soil samples there was also a decrease during the rainy season. The most abundant species and with the largest temporal distribution were the parabiotic Crematogaster limata and Crematogaster limata limata throughout the studied period, both in soil and vegetation samples. We can conclude that, when we observe the soil and vegetation collections, the year of greatest prominence was 1992, where the species underwent climatic changes (El Niño)