Ants of the Reserva Natural del Bosque Mbaracayú, Canindeyú, Paraguay

Created by Alex Wild Department of Entomology  University of California at Davis  Davis, CA 95616  (530)752-9977 Last Updated March 24, 2003 Related links: Fundación Moises Bertoni (Reserve Managers) Paraguayan Biological Inventory

The following species list (295 species) is drawn from collections made between March 1996 and December 1997, and again in November 2002, using a combination of visual searches, berlese funnels, malaise traps, tuna and honey baits, and black lights. The list also includes species collected in the reserve's buffer zone, an area that extends outward from the reserve's borders about 10km.

Voucher specimens have been deposited in the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and in my personal collection.  Some of the attines have been sent to the United States National Museum (Smithsonian), and some of the Pheidole to Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Please email me if you have any questions, comments, or if you wish to see some of the collected material.

Except where noted, all identifications listed here are my own.  Species denoted by letters (e.g. Azteca sp. A) represent distinct morphospecies that have not been matched, or could not be matched, to published names.

* Pyramica metrix is a rare dacetine ant species that is known only from the Mbaracayú reserve. P. metrix was described by Barry Bolton (Bolton, B. 2000. Mem. Amer. Entomol. Inst. 65: 1-1028) from a single specimen collected at Ñandurocai, the northwest border of the reserve.  I have collected three additional specimens in the present survey.