A Comparative Study of Two Ant Faunas: The Stem-Nesting Ant Communities of Liberia, West Africa and Costa Rica, Central America

Abstract

Compared to Costa Rica, the arboreal ant fauna of Liberia is characterized by low numbers of species and a low frequency of occupied stems in tree crowns. The most common ant in the relatively depauperate fauna of Liberia was Tetraponera sp. This species failed to show any numerical effects of competitive release and no increase in array of nest types. The abundance of pseudomyrmecine ants, (Pseudomyrmex and Tetraponera), is apparently constrained by limiting nest sites. The relatively low biomass of stem-nesting ants in Liberian tree crowns is possibly a function of the depressant effect of other aggressive arboreal species, such as Oecophylla, that have less restrictive nest-site requirements. The relatively low number of arboreal species of ants in Liberia is probably a function of historical events, perhaps dating from the early Pleistocene.