In tropical rain forests, the ant community can be divided into ground and arboreal faunas. Here, we report a thorough sampling of the arboreal ant fauna of La Selva Biological Station, a Neotropical rain forest site. Forty‐five canopy fogging samples were centered around large trees. Individual samples harbored an average of 35 ant species, with up to 55 species in a single sample. The fogging samples yielded 163 observed species total, out of a statistically estimated 199 species. We found no relationship between within‐sample ant richness and focal tree species, nor were the ant faunas of nearby trees more similar to each other than the faunas of widely spaced trees. Species density was high, and beta diversity was low: A single column of vegetation typically harbors at least a fifth of the entire arboreal ant fauna. Considering the entire fauna, based on 23,326 species occurrence records using a wide variety of collecting methods, 182 of 539 observed species (196 of 605, estimated statistically) were entirely arboreal. The arboreal ant fauna is thus about a third of the total La Selva ant fauna, a robust result because inventory completeness was similar for ground and arboreal ants. The taxonomic history of discovery of the species that make up the La Selva fauna reveals no disproportionately large pool of undiscovered ant species in the canopy. The "last biotic frontier" for tropical ants has been the rotten wood, leaf litter, and soil of the forest floor.

中文翻译：

---

新热带雨林的树栖蚂蚁具有很高的物种密度，占蚂蚁动物群的三分之一

在热带雨林中，蚂蚁群落可分为地面动物和树栖动物。在这里，我们报告了新热带雨林站点La Selva生物站的树木蚂蚁动物区系的完整采样。四十五个冠层雾状样品以大树为中心。单个样本平均包含35种蚂蚁，单个样本中最多包含55种。在统计估计的199种中，有雾样品总共产生163种观察物种。我们发现样本内的蚂蚁丰富度与重点树种之间没有任何关系，附近树木的蚂蚁动物群也比宽间隔的树木的动物群彼此更不相似。物种密度高，β多样性低：单列植被通常至少占据整个树栖蚂蚁动物群的五分之一。考虑到整个动物区系，基于使用多种收集方法的23326种物种发生记录，在539种观察物种中有182种（统计上估计为605种）是树栖的。因此，树栖蚂蚁动物群约占La Selva蚂蚁总数的三分之一，这是一个有力的结果，因为地面和树栖蚂蚁的存货完整性相似。组成La Selva动物群的物种的分类历史发现，在树冠层中没有未成比例的未发现蚂蚁物种大池。对于热带蚂蚁来说，“最后的生物前沿”是腐烂的木材，枯枝落叶和林地土壤。因此，树栖蚂蚁动物群约占La Selva蚂蚁总数的三分之一，这是一个有力的结果，因为地面和树栖蚂蚁的存货完整性相似。组成La Selva动物群的物种的分类历史发现，在树冠层中没有未成比例的未发现蚂蚁物种大池。对于热带蚂蚁来说，“最后的生物前沿”是腐烂的木材，枯枝落叶和林地土壤。因此，树栖蚂蚁动物群约占La Selva蚂蚁总数的三分之一，这是一个有力的结果，因为地面和树栖蚂蚁的存货完整性相似。组成La Selva动物群的物种的分类历史发现，在树冠层中没有未成比例的未发现蚂蚁物种大池。对于热带蚂蚁来说，“最后的生物前沿”是腐烂的木材，枯枝落叶和林地土壤。