Project:

Diversity of the Leaf Litter Ant Strumigenys in Suburban Areas

Students:

Alexander Doboli, Marc Nichitiu, Boya Zhang, Qingyuan (Harry) Zhang

School:

The Stony Brook School,, Suffolk

Mentors:

Erol Altug

Abstract:

The leaf litter ant Strumigenys is one of the most diverse ant genera in the world, encompassing every continent except Antarctica. The genus has received a great amount of attention throughout the 21st century, with research on its morphology, phylogenetic relationships, organismal chemistry, etc. Yet its diversity is still shown to be heavily underestimated, especially in urban and suburban regions. Complementing the investigations done in the past two years, the current study intends to provide a more comprehensive evaluation on ant biodiversity in the Three Village Area. The objective of this campaign is to show the potential presence of cryptic leaf litter and underground species and test the effectiveness of each collecting technique. In addition, we wish to assess the correlation between soil moisture and collecting efficiency, as pointed out by previous studies.

Poster:

Team samples: