Ants of the Klong U-Tapao Basin, Southern
Thailand
SUPAROEK WATANASIT*, JAREARNSAK SAEWAI AND AMPHON PHLAPPLUENG
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla
University, Hat Yai, Songkhla Thailand 90112,
Abstract: Ton Nga Chang Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the
Khao Ban Thad Mountain Range, in the southern part of Thailand.
It serves as a watershed for the Klong U-Tapao Basin that
collects water from many streams, draining via Hat Yai City
into Songkhla Lake. It might be expected that the diversity
of habitat types along the streams from the watershed to the
lake should be reflected in the diversity of fauna and flora.
Ants play important roles in the ecosystem, and the aim of
this study was to examine the distribution of ants in different
habitats along the stream of the Klong U-Tapao Basin. Five
study sites were chosen within the following categories: three
from the forest watershed area of the Wildlife Sanctuary and
two from agricultural landscapes downstream. At each study
site, three permanent plots of 20 x 20 m were selected for
sampling. Two sampling methods, hand collecting (HC) and leaf
litter sampling (LL), were used to collect ants within a time
limit of 30 minutes for each method in each permanent plot;
sampling took place every two months from January 2003 to
January 2004. We collected 248 species of ants in 50 genera
and seven subfamilies: Aenictinae, Cerapachyinae, Dolichoderinae,
Formicinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae and Pseudomyrmecinae. The
majority of species were in the Myrmicinae (43%) and Formicinae
(31%). Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) distinguished
between the two groups of sites (forested watershed area and
downstream agricultural landscape) and the different sampling
methods (HC and LL). In conclusion, this study indicates that
the distribution of ant species does vary along the Klong
U-Tapao Basin, and that natural forest areas differ substantially
from agricultural habitats.
