A preliminary survey of nocturnal ants, with novel modifications for collecting nocturnal arboreal ants

Ants were surveyed in a 100-m horizontal transect by employing three collecting techniques: leaf litter sifting and Winkler extraction, pitfall trapping, and beating of low vegetation. Ants were surveyed during the day and again at night to record the temporal behavior of the ants. In aggregate, 23 species of ants were collected only during the day, 24 species during the night, and 36 species during both day and night. There was a large overlap between diurnal and nocturnal ground-foraging and leaf-litter ant communities. On the other hand, the diurnal arboreal ant community seems to be distinct from the nocturnal arboreal ant community (Jaccard Distance = 0.85). Our results suggest that nocturnal arboreal ants are likely sources of new discoveries. The novel modifications we present here may help address this knowledge gap for ants and other nocturnal arboreal arthropods.

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