Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Tabasco: Exploring the Diversity of the Ant Fauna in Lowland Tropical Forests

Authors

  • Israel del toro Universidad de Texas en El Paso, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas
  • Miriam Vázquez Universidad de Texas en El Paso, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas
  • William P. Mackay Universidad de Texas en El Paso, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas
  • Patricia Rojas Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa Veracruz (INECOL). Biología de Suelos
  • Raúl Zapata Mata Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT). División Académica de Ciencias Biológicas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32870/dugesiana.v16i1.3920

Keywords:

ant diversity, taxonomy, new state records

Abstract

The ant diversity of Mexico is not well documented. We present a biodiversity analysis of the species of ants from Tabasco, the southeastern Mexican state. Field collecting was completed from August 2006 to August 2007, museum collections were surveyed and literature containing species reports for the state were analyzed. We present the first study that focuses exclusively on the diversity of ants of Tabasco and provide (i) a species list of all known records of ant species in Tabasco (ii) genera synopses with notes on distribution, natural history and taxonomy and (iii) species accumulation curves with the diversity estimators Sobs Mao Tao, Incidence-based Coverage Estimator (ICE), and Michealis-Menten Means Estimator (MMMeans). We report a total of 138 known ant species for Tabasco (in 42 genera and 10 subfamilies) with 67 new state records. The diversity estimators indicate that the diversity of ants in the state is not yet fully documented and predict a maximum richness of 170 species for Tabasco. This work is baseline study which aims to fully understand the true richness of species of ants in the lowland tropical rain forests of Southern Mexico

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2015-09-18

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Vol. 16 No. 1 (2009): Julio 2009

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