%0 Journal Article
%T Pitfall Traps: A Novel Method to Study Approaching Time of Ant Species
%A Joothi Paramanandham
%A Pakkirisamy Rangeela
%A Pankirias Ronald Ross
%A Selvaraj Sathiskumar
%J Entomology and Applied Science Letters
%@ 2349-2864
%D 2022
%V 9
%N 4
%R 10.51847/8qtB3V60K0
%P 62-69
%X Ant fauna is probably the most dominant social organism in terrestrial ecosystems, which have more sense to approach the prey items. Normally, people scold the various ants for the sense of prediction of sugar or other food items in our domicile. Among the ant species, sensation may be varied. The present study revealed the abundance and diversity of ant species and their relation to the approaching time of the pitfall traps. Totally, eight species were recorded which is belonging to the sub-families of Formicidae (56%), Myrmicinae (33%), and Dolichoderinae (11%). In pitfall traps, Camponotus chromaiodes (69%) and Camponotus floridanus (39%) were high abundances in a two-hour duration. The Oecophyllas maragdina was highly abundant in the four-hour duration. Monomorium minimum occupied 50 % of the total ant occupancy during a six-hour duration. Camponotus consobrinus and Camponotus compressus showed the highest abundance in the 24-hour duration of pitfall traps. The percentage of species assemblage was significantly varied among the various hours in all the species. Similarly, all the species varied significantly over time. The study concludes the abundance of ant fauna in pitfall traps was indirectly related to the attraction of pitfall traps by the ant. In diversity, indices showed not a greater variance among the different hours studied. This study brings to a close that the specific species study of Ant fauna needs to be apprehensive about the specific time of pitfall traps for sampling.
%U https://easletters.com/article/pitfall-traps-a-novel-method-to-study-approaching-time-of-ant-species-qlyck98ngrc8zmy