Ant Survey Data, Calperum Mallee SuperSite, Calperum Station 2016

Ants are a focal faunal taxon for the Australian SuperSite Network and the Australian Transect Network (ATN). Ants are Australia’s dominant faunal group in terms of biomass and energy flow. They occupy all trophic levels, act as ecosystem engineers, feature in many mutualistic interactions with plants, and are a key food resource for many vertebrates. Ants are also Australia’s best studied insect group in terms of biogeography and community dynamics. They are the most widely used invertebrate bio-indicators in environmental assessment and monitoring. Ants are readily sampled for monitoring purposes using pitfall traps. Pitfall traps are especially effective in open habitats, where the great majority of ant species are trappable. Pitfall traps capture less of the fauna in tropical rainforests (which support a high diversity of specialist arboreal taxa), but have still proven effective for environmental assessment and monitoring in these habitats. Pitfall traps have been used to sample ants at thousands of sites from throughout Australia over the past 30 years.