Ant species composition in Macaranga spp. trees at a conservation forest of palm oil plantation in West Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

This study was aims to investigate the ant species composition in Macaranga spp. trees at Conservation Forest of Palm Oil Plantation of Tidar Kerinci Agung Company in West Sumatra Province by using Colony Collections and Hand Collections methods. A total of 28 species of ants that belonging to five subfamilies, 10 tribes, 17 genera and 5277 individuals was collected from five species of Macaranga (31 individuals of Macaranga trees). Myrmicinae and Formicinae were the highest in number of species (10 species respectively), followed by Ponerinae and Dolichoderinae (three species respectively), meanwhile Dorylinae only one species. Crematogaster (Decacrema) borneensis Andre, 1896 was the species with the most frequently among samples, accounting for 100% of species occurrences. Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index for all samples collected was low (0.94).