ANT DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION DEPENDS ON THE NATURE OF VEGETATION IN A MAINTAINED LOCALITY DESPITE OF DISTURBANCE - THROUGH HABITAT INFILTRATION

This work embodies the analysis of Ants diversity in a small area that has changed through time due to modifications in the natural habitat. The study area comprised of three zones, the undisturbed zone, the maintained zone that had similar varieties of trees of fifty-one species, and horticulture gardens with monoclonal plantations, frequently cultivated. A total number of 4319 trees were screened for the presence of ants, of these 1626 trees had ants remaining 2691 trees were found unoccupied by ants. Forty taxonomic species of ants belong to Twenty six genera and six subfamilies have been identified associated with fifty-one species of trees that exist in different land zones. Comparatively a lesser density of ants were found in the disturbed or maintained area but had species richness and the horticulture patches had less diversity of ant species as well less denser compared to natural or undisturbed area. The undisturbed zones had species abundance. In the present study, we investigated the abundance, species richness, and nature of association with trees existing in this ecosystem along with how the changes in the habitat allow infiltration of the Ants species, through a graphical model.