GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS X 284 Volume-3, Issue-7, July-2014 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160 Research Paper Zoology Biodiversity of Ants (Hymenoptera : Formicidae) of Amba Reserve Forest of Western Ghats, Maharashtra. Dr. Bhoje P. M. Department of Zoology, Y. C. Warana Mahavidyalaya, Warananagar,Kolhapur Shilpa H. Kurane Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur Desai A.S. Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur *Dr. Sathe T. V. Professor, Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur * Corresponding Author Ants are significant part of ecosystem not only because they represent a great part of the animal biomass but also they acts as ecosystem engineers. We collected 65 ant species, distributed in 35 genera. The most specious subfamily was Myrmicinae (26 Specious) followed by Formiciniae ( 16 Species ), Ponerinae (11species) ,Pseudomermicinae (4 Species),Dolichoderinae (3 Species), Cerpachyinae, Acnictinae ( 2 Species each ) and Dorylinae ( 1 Species ). ABSTRACT KEYWORDS : Biodiversity, Ants, Amba reserve forest. INTRODUCTION Ants are significant part of ecosystem not only because they rep- resent a great part of the animal biomass but also they acts as eco- system engineers. These are important in bellow ground process through the fluctuation of the physical and chemical environment and through their effect on plants, microorganisms, and other soil organisms (Folgarait, 1998). Ants are kept in a single family, the For- micidae, contained by the order Hymenoptera, and are social insects which have been evolving successfully since the Cretaceous. The known living ants involve 16 families, 296 genera and 15000 species, around 10,000 of which are described (Bolton, 1994). However, the number of species still remaining to be discovered and described is extremely high (Holldobler and Wilson, 190). In spite of its manifolds importance, ants are poorly studied. Jorden (1851) worked on Indian ants particularly from southern India and recorded 46 species under 8 genera of these 39 species were new to science. While Forel (1900) and Donisthorpe (1942, 1943) contribut- ed much of the fauna of southern India. Prior to this, Bingham (1903) published his valuable work on the ant Fauna of British India includ- ing Burma and Ceylon and gave detailed account of distribution Successive workers like Forel ( 1900a, 1900b, 1900c), Mukherjee (1927), Karavajew (1926,1927,1928), Menozzi(1935), Donisthorphe (1942a,1942b,1942c,1943), Smith (1948) , Brown Jr.(1954, 1957,1959), Wilson (1964), Taylor(1968), Collingwood (1970), Bolton (1995), Baroni Urbani ( 1977),Tewary ( 1977), Tiwari et al. 1994a 1994b,) have made valuable contribution to the ants fauna. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted at Amba reserve forest (ARF) (16.69 N 0 , 74.24E 0 ). This Ghats lays in Sahyadri Mountains ranges; it is a tropical semi evergreen forest. The forest covers an area 318 ha. Elevation ranges 800 to 2000 m above the sea level and total annul precipita- tion ranges from 2000 mm to 2500mm. Temperature ranges 20 0 C to 38 0 C in summer, 10 0 C to 30 0 C in winter and in rainy season it is about 15 0 C to 30 0 C. Study was conducted from June 2009 to 2010. Present work is based on the collection of the ants from ARF. Ants in present study were collected from 2009 to 2011 at each fifteen days of intervals, generally in morning and in evening from different lo- calities of Amba forest reserve .They were collected with help of cam- el brush and forceps (BB). After study the ants have been released in field from where they were collected. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Results are recorded in table 1 and figs. 1 to 5. We collected 65 ant species, distributed in 35 genera. The most specious subfamily was Myrmicinae (26 Specious) followed by Formiciniae ( 16 Species ), Po- nerinae (11species) ,Pseudomermicinae (4 Species),Dolichoderinae (3 Species), Cerpachyinae and Acnictinae ( 2 Species each ) ,Dorylinae ( 1 Species ) Table : 1 List of ants of Amba reserve forest Tal . Shahuwadi Dist . Kolhapur ,Maharashatra