ANTS OF THE OTONGA FOREST

     My current project deals with ant species richness of the Otonga Forest. Otonga is a 1000-hectare primary cloud forest situated in the western slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes between 1600 and 2200 m of altitude. Recently, Otonga Forest has been demonstrated to lodge rare species; a brand new species of the rare ant Leptanilloides is currently being described by Juan Vieira at QCAZ and Alex Wild at UC Davis. I follow the ALL Protocol for ground-dwelling ants sampling and future comparison with other litter ant faunas. Additional sampling methods include small soil samples, dead wood inspection and the use of several kinds of bait. Tree-dwelling species are being collected manually and I am currently rewiewing feasible methods for sampling canopy ants, since traditional canopy fogging is banned inside the reserve. I expect to obtain valuable information of ant abundance and species richness patterns in this cloud forest and, in doing so, to contribute to the forest's future conservation.
      In a second project, I am compiling a list of the ant fauna of Ecuador. A comprehensive list of Ecuadorian ant species is far from completion, but certainly needed for development of local myrmecology.

David A. Donoso
Museo de Zoología QCAZ
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
email: thavith@hotmail.com