Corresponding author: Cong Liu (
Academic editor: B. L. Fisher
China’s Hengduan Mountain region has been considered one of the most diverse regions in the northern hemisphere. Its stunning topography with many deep valleys and impassable mountain barriers has promoted an astonishing diversification in many groups of organisms including plants, birds, mammals, and amphibians. However, the insect biodiversity in this region is still poorly known. Here, the first checklist of ant species from the Southern Hengduan Mountain region is presented, generated by sampling ant diversity using a wide array of collection methods, including Winkler leaf litter extraction, vegetation beating, and hand collection. 130 species/morphospecies from nine subfamilies and 49 genera were identified. Among them, 17 species from 13 genera represent new records for Yunnan province, and eight species are newly recorded for China. Moreover, we believe 41 novel morphospecies (31% of the total collected taxa) will prove to be new to science. These results highlight the rich ant fauna of this region and strongly support its status as a biodiversity hotspot. The current ant species checklist for the whole of Yunnan Province was updated by recording 550 named species from 99 genera. Taken together, our results suggest that the Yunnan ant fauna still remains under-sampled, and future sampling will likely yield many more species, among them many undescribed ones.
Liu C, Fischer G, Garcia FH, Yamane S, Liu Q, Peng YQ, Economo EP, Guénard B, Pierce NE (2020) Ants of the Hengduan Mountains: a new altitudinal survey and updated checklist for Yunnan Province highlight an understudied insect biodiversity hotspot. ZooKeys 978: 1–171.
The Hengduan Mountain region, located in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is one of the 35 recognized biodiversity hotspots in the world (
Ants are an ecologically dominant component of many ecosystems in terms of their abundance, richness, and ecosystem function (
To address this gap, we here present the results of an ant biodiversity survey conducted in the Gaoligong Shan mountains (part of the Hengduan Mountains), Yunnan Province, southwest China undertaken in 2019. Our goal is to present a complete species checklist of ants from the Gaoligong Mountains, including new records, as well as to update the current ant species checklist for the whole of Yunnan Province.
The Gaoligong Shan mountains (lat. 24°560'–28°220'N, long. 98°080'–98°500'E) comprise the western-most part of the Hengduan Mountain Range, and are among the most biodiversity-rich areas in Yunnan (
Yunnan province is the richest province of China in terms of ant diversity (
Ant specimens were collected from natural forests along an elevational gradient on both the eastern and western slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains in July 2019. We sampled leaf litter ants from 16 sites at roughly 150 m elevational intervals from 600 m to 3000 m, following the standardized sampling protocol developed in Liu et al. 2016. At each site, we established a 400 m2 quadrat (20 m × 20 m) and collected leaf litter samples at the four corners of the quadrat (1 m2). We also collected leaf litter within the quadrat to cover a variety of microhabitats. Finally, ants on the ground, lower vegetation, and tree branches were collected both by hand and using a beating sheet. Leaf litter samples were extracted using mini Winkler extractors for 72 hours using the shuffling method described in
Ant specimens were first placed in 99% ethanol and later sorted into morphospecies and point mounted. Each mounted specimen was assigned a unique
Distribution maps of species were generated from records included within the Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics (
More than 3000 specimens were collected during this survey, and 130 species and morphospecies in 49 genera and nine subfamilies were identified. After identification of 88 valid species from the 130 total collected species, a total of 17 new species records are presented for Yunnan province and eight represent new records for China (see Table
List of ant species (Formicidae) in the Gaoligong Shan mountains, Yunnan with their respective illustrations. * New to Yunnan province; **New to China.
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Within the recent collection, the most speciose ant genus is
Here, we present the list of ant species that were collected in the Gaoligong Shan mountains (Table
Number of ant species of per genus collected in this survey as well the total number of each species per genus in Yunnan province.
Genus | Gaoligongshan Mt. | Yunnan | Genus | Gaoligongshan Mt. | Yunnan |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
10 | 30 |
|
2 | 17 |
|
8 | 42 |
|
2 | 6 |
|
8 | 32 |
|
2 | 6 |
|
6 | 10 |
|
2 | 14 |
|
6 | 24 |
|
2 | 4 |
|
5 | 29 |
|
2 | 6 |
|
5 | 19 |
|
2 | 3 |
|
5 | 19 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
4 | 7 |
|
1 | 3 |
|
3 | 25 |
|
1 | 4 |
|
3 | 9 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 7 |
|
1 | 3 |
|
2 | 6 |
|
1 | 3 |
|
3 | 12 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 7 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 10 |
|
1 | 7 |
|
3 | 2 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 4 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 7 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
3 | 12 |
|
1 | 1 |
|
2 | 4 |
|
1 | 2 |
|
2 | 1 |
|
1 | 4 |
|
2 | 3 |
|
1 | 11 |
|
2 | 8 |
|
1 | 4 |
|
2 | 7 |
|
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|
The ant species list of Yunnan Province was generated using records from
Ant species records that have been excluded from Yunnan when compared to the previous list. The explanation “Needs verification” usually signifies that the species has never been recorded before in this region and/or is easily mistaken for another species and likely to have been misidentified. “Dubious” means that the record occurrence is highly unlikely given the known species distribution. Notes provide additional references regarding records and/or further information.
Excluded species records | Explanations | Notes |
---|---|---|
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Needs verification | A Palearctic species with distribution in Asia needs confirmation |
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Dubious | An Australian species misreported previously |
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Dubious | Could be |
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Dubious | A misidentification of |
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Dubious | A misidentification of |
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Needs verification | A Palearctic species with distribution in Asia needs confirmation |
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Needs verification | Species with distribution limited to East Asia |
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Dubious | See |
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Dubious | A West Palearctic species with distribution in Asia doubtful |
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Dubious | See Espadaler et al. 2001 |
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Dubious | See Seifert 1992 |
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Needs verification | Species with distribution limited to Japan and the Korean Peninsula |
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Needs verification | Species with distribution limited to Japan, the Korean Peninsula and Eastern Russia |
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Dubious | See |
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Needs verification | See |
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Dubious | See |
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Dubious | Record represented a new species subsequently described in |
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Dubious | A misidentification of |
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Needs verification | A central Asian species which presence in Yunnan requires confirmation |
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Dubious | An Indian species that is restricted to the Southwest. |
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Dubious | An Afrotropical species incorrectly reported in Asia |
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Dubious | An endemic species in the Philippines |
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Dubious | A misidentification of |
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Dubious | Phil Ward (Personal communication, 18 August 2015) |
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Dubious | Phil Ward (Personal communication, 18 August 2015) |
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Dubious | See |
In Yunnan, the most diverse ant genus is
Number of ant species (both native and exotic species) in Yunnan Province. * Ant genus only known from morphospecies records.
Genus | Native | Exotic | Genus | Native | Exotic |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
42 | 0 |
|
2 | 1 |
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32 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
30 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
28 | 1 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
25 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
24 | 1 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
19 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
19 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
17 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
14 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
12 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
12 | 0 |
|
0 | 2 |
|
11 | 0 |
|
2 | 0 |
|
11 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
10 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
9 | 1 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
9 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
8 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
8 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
5 | 2 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
7 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
6 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
|
6 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
6 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
|
5 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 1 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
4 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
2 | 1 |
|
0 | 1 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
|
1 | 0 |
|
3 | 0 |
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Field inventories and data synthesis efforts are essential for our understanding of ant diversity in ‘hotspots’ that harbor most of Earth’s biodiversity. Our study represents new survey data from an understudied region. We produce the first ant species checklist from China’s Hengduan Mountains (130 species).
A majority of the ant species were only collected below 1500 m, consistent with the strong effect of elevation on ant diversity observed elsewhere (Suppl. material
Many of the new records in our collection such as
Despite the comparatively small area of China’s Hengduan Mountains that we explored for this inventory of myrmecofauna, we were able to collect 130 species, which accounts for more than 24 % of the total number of ant species (N = 550) for Yunnan province. Among them, more than 10% of the ant species that were collected in this survey represent new records for Yunnan province. Moreover, there are still more than 41 morphospecies (32% of the total collected) that we believe are undescribed and new to science. To date, three
Our sampling of the full ant diversity of the Hengduan mountain region is still relatively limited. For example, we only had one sampling site per elevation, which is insufficient to cover the complex topology of the Hengduan Mountains. We also only used leaf litter extraction and hand collection, which is unlikely to recover complete ant assemblages. The incorporation of additional sampling techniques into our methodology, such as pitfall trapping, soil baiting, twig sampling, light trapping and canopy fogging, will cover more strata and lifestyles, and thus significantly increase our rate of species discovery. Overall, our results highlight how little was previously known about the ant fauna in this region and emphasize the need for further collecting in order to better understand the hidden ant biodiversity in China’s Hengduan Mountains, and Yunnan Province overall.
If the total species richness of ants in Yunnan, with 550 species, is still an underestimate of the full species numbers, the exceptional diversity of genera encountered in this region needs to be highlighted. With 99 genera, Yunnan generic diversity is only matched globally by a few regions in South East Asia, and Queensland, Australia. A major difference with other Asian regions lies in the composition of the genera retrieved and their origin. For instance, genera found in Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia are almost exclusively derived from tropical, Oriental origins. In contrast, the geographic location and topography of Yunnan province has promoted an intermixing of taxa from several biogeographic regions: the Oriental realm from the south, the Palearctic realm from the northwest, and the Sino-Japanese realm from the northeast. As a result, the composition of the Yunnan ant fauna includes both tropical, subtropical, and temperate elements. Such intermixed communities are evident even at a small scale. For instance, during previous fieldwork conducted in the Gaoligongshan Mountains in 2015 by two of the authors (BG and CL), for which specimens were unfortunately lost, the coexistence of tropical (
The diversity of Yunnan ants is also remarkable for particular ant genera for which their global peak of diversity is encountered in the region. While it is important to note that the global diversity of specific genera as well as their overall taxonomic descriptions remain incomplete, seven genera present their highest currently known global diversity in Yunnan (
In conclusion, the important topographic variation, with mountain ranges aligned along a north-south axis combined with the presence of multiple climatic zones, including tropical rainforest in the lowland areas of the southern part of Yunnan create a diversity of microhabitats for supporting a diverse ant fauna. Moreover, the geographic position of Yunnan at the confluence of three biogeographic realms may promote ant diversity in the region. The collection of these 16 new ant records for Yunnan together with our previous discovery of 40 new ant records for Yunnan (
We thank Crystal Maier, David Lubertazzi, Stefan Cover, Patrick McCormack, Charles Whittemore Farnum, and Rachel Hawkins for assisting in different aspects of the research. We thank Brian Fisher, Himender Bharti, and Steve Shattuck for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Postdoctoral fellowship from the
Figure S1. Ant species richness pattern along an elevational gradient in the Hengduan Mountains
Image