ANTS DIVERSITY AND COMPOSITION BETWEEN TWO WILDLIFE CORRIDOR OF BUKIT BELATA FOREST RESERVE AND BUKIT TUNGGAL FOREST RESERVE

Abstract

Understanding the diversity and composition of two forest
corridors will provide invaluable information on the suitability
of the proposed wildlife corridor. Ants were used as
bioindicator to determine to health status Bukit Belata and Bukit
Tunggal Forest Reserves. Sampling were done using pitfall
traps and leaf litter sifting along a 500m line transect. A total of
35 species of ants belonging to 15 genera and 4 subfamilies
were collected. Bukit Belata FR yielded higher number of
species compared to Bukit Tunggal FR. However, the species
composition in Bukit Tunggal comprised mainly forest
specialist species instead of generalist species in Bukit Belata.