Estimating ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) diversity of Tasek Bera Ramsar Site, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia

Tasek Bera Ramsar Site, Pahang is the largest freshwater swamp-lake in Peninsular Malaysia and the ecosystem is diverse. The ground-dwelling ant fauna at Tasek Bera Ramsar Site is still understudied as there is no checklist available to date. The objective of this study is to survey the diversity of ground-dwelling ants (Formicidae) and to provide a checklist for Tasek Bera Ramsar Site. In this study, leaf-litter samples from 1 m² plot in five line transects were collected, and ants were taken manually. At each transect, plots were established between 20 m and 40 m in distance with a total of 16 plots. Six subfamilies of ants were recorded comprising of 26 genera and 53 species. Almost half of the samples collected were from the subfamily Myrmicinae (45.3%), followed by Formicinae (20.8%) and Ponerinae (17.0%). This finding is not surprising since Myrmicinae contains the most species in Formicidae. The most common genera recorded were Crematogaster (13.2%), Camponotus (7.5%), Carebara (7.5%), and Tetramorium (7.5%). According to the estimates of the expected species richness, leaf litter sifting and manual collection methods allowed for the collectionof 76 to 175 species of ants which is different from the total observed species in this survey. This difference is possibly due to the low sampling effort and short sampling duration. RaupCrick’s similarity index was calculated between plots resulting into four clusters. This might be due to the condition of each plot in which certain plots were in wet or dry conditions as a result from the tidal influence from Tasek Bera Ramsar Site. The finding from this study could serve as the baseline information on the Formicidae fauna at Tasek Bera Ramsar Site and can be used for further study for the conservation and management of the site.