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Project The
primary goal of this dataset was to study the response of subtropical
ant communities to rainfall and soil conditions. The Paraguay dry Chaco,
with little altitudinal and temperature variation over a large area,
offers a great opportunity to study the effects of these factors.
Between 2001 and 2004, eleven localities were sampled
along an aridity gradient ranging from 1000 to 400mm over a distance of
400 km. This research resulted in a phD dissertation (Delsinne 2007;
Delsinne et al. 2007, 2008) and in an ant collection of over 50,000
specimens.
The definitive identification of a series of
morphospecies is still under progress. Locally-defined species were
given a temporary code [e.g. sp.06 (PAG)] and do not necessarily
represent new species. The objective of this website is to provide a
public access to the collection in order to facilitate progresses in the
knowledge of ant species diversity, distribution and geographic
variations.
Acknowledgments
 |
 |
 |
| Carlos Aguilar, Maurice
Leponce, John Kochalka in front of the Paraguay Natural History
Museum |
Bolivar Garcete, Victor
Filippi, Thibaut Delsinne |
Jacques Delabie |
We thank John Kochalka, Bolivar Garcete-Barrett, Victor
Filippi, Jorge Jara, César Bénilez, Carlos
Aguilar Julio from the "Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del
Paraguay", the guards from Teniente
Enciso National Park and Véronique Olivier for their help during
fieldwork or administrative procedures. Alex Wild from University of
California at Davis and Jacques H.C. Delabie from the "laboratório
de Mirmecologia" of the USC-CEPLAC at Itabuna (Brazil) supervised
a part of the ant identifications. This study was made possible by
financial support from the "Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche
dans l’Industrie et l’Agriculture", the "Fonds de la
Recherche Scientifique - FNRS" (Belgium), the "Fonds Léopold
III pour l’Exploration et la Conservation de la Nature" and , the
"Fonds David et Alice van Buuren".
References
Delsinne, T. (2007) Structure of ant
assemblages along an aridity gradient in the paraguayan dry Chaco.
Université Libre de Bruxelles / Royal Belgian Institute of Natural
Sciences. phD thesis, 229 p. 
(15MB)
Delsinne, T.; Leponce, M.; Roisin, Y.
2007. Spatial and temporal foraging overlaps in a Chacoan ground
foraging ant assemblage. J. Arid Environments. 71:29-44
Delsinne, T.; Leponce, M.; Theunis, L.;
Braet, Y.; Roisin, Y. 2008. Rainfall influence the ant sampling in dry
forests. Biotropica, in press.
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