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Abstract. Ants are ubiquitous and have significant implications for the health of the ecosystem. In the Philippines, ant diversity is very high, with many species remaining undescribed. This study was conducted to determine the species diversity and functional groups of the ants in the Jose Rizal Memorial Protected Landscape (JRMPL), Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte. Fieldwork was conducted from November 12, 2021, to November 16, 2021. Three sites of secondary dipterocarp forest from Brgy. Talisay, namely: lower forest (LF), middle forest (MF), and upper forest (UF), and an agro-ecosystem (AE) site from Brgy. Sto. Niño employs baiting, pitfail traps, leaf litter sifting, and hand collection methods. Twenty-two species under 19 genera belonging to four subfamilies of the family Formicidae were documented. LF had the highest diversity (H' = 1.891) across sampling sites and a semi-disturbed richness of d = 0.2291. Eight functional groups were classified, with generalized Myrmicinae (GM) being prevalent at the three sites of the secondary dipterocarp forest. GM was abundant at the low disturbance and with the COVID-19 pandemic restricting visitors in JRMPL. Dominant Dolichoderinae (Dolichoderus thoracicus) posed a threat to the four sites since it indicated the area was highly disturbed. Four invasive species were present in the area. This implies that the conservation of the protected area should be implemented to maintain its biodiversity.
Key Words: generalized Myrmicinae, invasive species, species richness.
Introduction. Ants are among the many species that may be found almost anywhere, and their dominance has significant implications for ecosystem health. The services ants contribute to the structure of the environment are through soil ventilation and nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, mutualistic associations with plants and animals, and on evolutionary and ecological scales (Moreau et al 2006; Klimeš et al 2012; Dejean et al 2014). Ants are considered ubiquitous, diverse, abundant, and well-described (Batucan & Nuñeza 2013). Consequently, ants predominate in most terrestrial ecosystems, constituting 10% of the tropical rainforest's total animal biomass (Golias et al 2017; Wilson 2000).
The current record of ants in the world has 16 subfamilies, 364 genera, and 14194 species. In the Philippines, there are 10 subfamilies, 101 genera, and 563 species and subspecies of ants (AntWiki 2022). However, many species of ants remain unencountered, or at the least, undescribed (Smith et...