Cavity-dwelling ants tend to colonize close to artificial light

doi:10.17520/biods.2022067

Abstract

Abstract:

Aim: Light pollution is considered as an “environmental trap” that can attract insects from surrounding areas. Increased availability of insects and the presence of light itself may attract predators to colonize and nests near to the artificial lights, potentially altering insect diversity and ecosystem services. Ants (Formicidae: Hymenoptera) are one of the dominant predatory insects, and many cavity-dwelling ants use hollow branches or bamboo to build nests and reproduction. Despite their significance in predation and other ecosystem functions, the effects of light pollution on nesting ant communities remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of light-emitting diodes (LED) on nesting patterns and community composition in three different habitats (primary forest, secondary forest, and rubber plantation) in rainy and dry seasons.

Methods: In total, 15 LED lights were installed across three habitats, and artificial bamboo nests with different entrance sizes were set at 0 m, 10 m, 50 m, and 100 m away from the light source. Bamboo nests were left for seven weeks.

Results: We found 12 ant genera with 40 morphospecies in bamboo nests, among which Camponotus was the dominant genus. Our results reveal that areas immediately adjacent to the light source increased the occupancy rate but this was only evident in dry season. The occupancy rate remained low across distances away from the light (10-100 m). The same pattern was found across the three different habitats. The community composition of ants was significantly different between the seasons, but was marginally significant among the three habitats in the dry season only. Community composition did not change with the distance from the light source. Entrance size had no significant effect on bamboo nest occupancy.

Conclusion: Our study shows that light pollution attracted nesting ants and altered their spatial distribution which may result in modified ecosystem functions near the artificial lights.

Key words: light pollution, Formicidae, community assemblage, bamboo nest, primary forest, secondary forest, rubber plantation

Runming Yang, Akihiro Nakamura. Cavity-dwelling ants tend to colonize close to artificial light[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2022, 30(8): 22067.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2022067

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2022/V30/I8/22067

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Artificial bamboo nests production (a and b) and setting in the field (c and d; nests were fixed on the tree trunk, 1.5 m away from the ground and keeping the hole downward for prevent raining water)

Table 1 Taxonomic information of ants found in artificial bamboo nests

属 Genus	干季 Dry season						雨季 Rainy season
	原始林 Primary forest		次生林 Secondary forest		橡胶林 Rubber plantation		原始林 Primary forest		次生林 Secondary forest		橡胶林 Rubber plantation
	NS	NN	NS	NN	NS	NN	NS	NN	NS	NN	NS	NN
弓背蚁属 Camponotus	6	17	4	8	6	19	3	6	2	13	3	12
举腹蚁属 Crematogaster	1	1	2	6	2	7	2	3	2	9	0	0
臭蚁属 Dolichoderus	1	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
大头蚁属 Pheidole	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
菲臭蚁属 Philidris	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
多刺蚁属 Polyrhachis	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	6	0	0	2	2
棒角蚁属 Rhopalomastix	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
酸臭蚁属 Tapinoma	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
狡臭蚁属 Technomyrmex	1	1	0	0	2	2	1	3	0	0	2	3
铺道蚁属 Tetramorium	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	1	1	1
虹臭蚁属 Iridomyrmex	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
小家蚁属 Monomorium	0	0	1	1	2	5	0	0	0	0	2	10
合计 Total	11	28	9	18	13	34	11	22	5	23	13	32

Table 2 The glmmTMB best model selection of bamboos with ants and bamboos with nesting ants. The bold AIC values indicate lowest value which is the best model.

模型 Model	存在蚂蚁的竹巢 Bamboos with ants	被蚂蚁占用的竹巢 Bamboos with nesting ants
模型 Model	AIC	AIC
R~ D + S + (1 \| T) + D:S	780	591
R ~ D + H + S + (1 \| T) + D:S	782	593
R ~ D + H + S + (1 \| T) + D:S + D:H	783	594
R ~ D + H + S + (1 \| T) + D:S + S:H	783	596
R~ D + S + (1 \| T)	784	592
R ~ D + H + S + (1 \| T) + D:S + S:H + D:H	784	597
R ~ D + H + S + (1 \| T) + D:S + S:H + D:H + D:H:S	785	596

Table 3 The glmmTMB best models of bamboos with ants and bamboos with nesting ants. The bold P values indicate P < 0.05.

固定因子 Fixed effects	存在蚂蚁的竹巢 Bamboos with ants			被蚂蚁占用的竹巢 Bamboos with nesting ants
固定因子 Fixed effects	χ²	df	P	χ²	df	P
D	11.245	1	< 0.001	11.518	1	< 0.001
S	6.109	1	0.013	4.235	1	0.039
D:S	5.501	1	0.019	1.713	1	0.191

Fig. 2 Mean proportion of bamboos occupied by ants (a) and nesting ants (b) at different distances away from the light source (0, 10, 50 and 100 m) across the three habitats and two seasons. Error bars are standard errors. Bamboo nests were not set at 100 m site in dry season. PF, Primary forest; SF, Secondary forest; RP, Rubber plantation.

Fig. 3 Mean proportion of bamboos with different entrance size occupied by ants (a) and nesting ants (b) across the three habitats. Error bars are standard errors. PF, Primary forest; SF, Secondary forest; RP, Rubber plantation.

Fig. 4 Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination of the ant assemblages found in the bamboo sticks placed in primary forest (PF), secondry forest (SF) and rubber plantation (RP) in dry and rainy seasons.

Fig. 5 Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination of the ant assemblages found in the bamboo sticks placed in primary forest (PF), secondry forest (SF) and rubber plantation (RP) along the distance. Rare species were found at 10 m in the primary forest, caused extreme outlier in NMDS analysis, which had been removed in the figure.

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