Abundance of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) at the Faculty Of Sustainable Agriculture, University Malaysia Sabah, Sandakan

"This study was conducted at the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture (FSA), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to determine the abundance of ants in FSA. FSA covers 244.64 acres of land and most of the area will be or had been used for planting purpose. Ants can be differentiated into beneficial ants and pest ants to plants. In this study, the genera and the abundance of the ants in FSA were determined and this study will provide a primary reference to FSA about the information of the ants in FSA. Hence, FSA may take control over the pest ants and maintain the population of beneficial ants. The ants were sampled from four plots in FSA using pitfall traps for duration of eight days. Pitfall trap baited with honey, tuna, meat, tofu and control were used to attract different ant species. The diversity of ants in FSA was determined by using software 'Species Diversity and Richness'version 4.1.2 designed by Dr R. M. H. Seaby and Dr P. A. Handerson, 2007, published by Disces Conservation Ltd. In total, 45879 individuals of ants were collected by using pit fall traps baited with honey, meat, tuna, tofu and control in this study. Meat had attracted the highest number of individuals, 20373 followed by tuna (13783 individuals), honey (9260 individuals), tofu (2080 individuals) and control (383 individuals). In this study, ten genus of ants were identified, which belonged to three subfamilies (Dolichoderinae, Formicinae and Myrmicinae). Three out of the ten genus of ants found in this study were identified as beneficial to agriculture, which are Chimaeridris, Crematogaster and Oecophyl/a. Others (seven genus of ants) included Cardiocondyla, Dolichoderus, Lepisiota, Loweriella, Pseudolasius, Tapinoma, and Tetramorium were identified as pest or non-beneficial to agriculture. There was no Significant difference among baits honey, meat, tuna, tofu and control for Shannon Wiener's Index (Figure 4.1; H' : F 4,19 = 1.82, P = 0.18), Margalef's Index (Figure 4.2; OM : F 4.19 = 0.31, P = 0.87), and Simpson's Index (Rgure 4.1; Os : F 4,19 = 0.84, P = 0.52). This indicated that there no difference on ant genus diversity, richness and evenness regardless of the baits used in this study