Grasslands are globally imperilled ecosystems due to widespread conversion to agriculture and there is a concerted effort to catalogue arthropod diversity in grasslands to guide conservation decisions. The Palouse Prairie is one such endangered grassland; a mid-elevation habitat found in Washington and Idaho, United States. Ants (Formicidae) are useful indicators of biodiversity and historical ecological disturbance, but there has been no structured sampling of ants in the Palouse Prairie. To fill this gap, we employed a rapid inventory sampling approach using pitfall traps to capture peak ant activity in five habitat fragments. We complemented our survey with a systemic review of field studies for the ant species found in Palouse Prairie. Our field inventory yielded 17 ant species across 10 genera and our models estimate the total ant species pool to be 27. The highest ant diversity was found in an actively-managed ecological trust in Latah County, Idaho, suggesting that restoration efforts may increase biodiversity. We also report two rarely-collected ants in the Pacific Northwest and a microgyne that may represent an undescribed species related to Brachymyrmex depilis. Our score-counting review revealed that grassland ants in Palouse Prairie have rarely been studied previously and that more ant surveys in temperate grasslands have lagged behind sampling efforts of other global biomes.

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帕卢斯大草原的蚂蚁：濒危草原的多样性和物种组成

由于向农业的广泛转化，草原是全球受威胁的生态系统，并且人们正在共同努力对草原中的节肢动物多样性进行分类，以指导保护决策。帕卢斯草原就是其中一种濒临灭绝的草原。在美国华盛顿和爱达荷州发现的中海拔栖息地。蚂蚁（Formicidae）是生物多样性和历史生态扰动的有用指标，但是在Palouse草原中没有结构化的蚂蚁采样。为了填补这一空白，我们采用了快速陷阱抽样方法，利用陷阱陷阱捕获了五个栖息地碎片中的峰值蚂蚁活性。我们通过对在Palouse草原发现的蚂蚁物种的田野研究的系统回顾来补充我们的调查。我们的实地调查清单在10个属中产生了17种蚂蚁物种，我们的模型估计总的蚂蚁物种库为27种。在爱达荷州拉塔县的一个积极管理的生态信托基金中发现了最高的蚂蚁多样性，这表明恢复工作可能会增加生物多样性。我们还报告了在西北太平洋地区收集的两只很少见的蚂蚁和一个小妇科动物，它们可能代表与Brachymyrmex depilis有关的未描述物种。我们的计分评论显示，以前很少研究过Palouse Prairie的草原蚂蚁，而在温带草原的更多蚂蚁调查却落后于其他全球生物群落的采样工作。我们还报告了在西北太平洋地区收集的两只很少见的蚂蚁和一个小妇科动物，它们可能代表与Brachymyrmex depilis有关的未描述物种。我们的计分评论显示，以前很少研究过Palouse Prairie的草原蚂蚁，而在温带草原的更多蚂蚁调查却落后于其他全球生物群落的采样工作。我们还报告了在西北太平洋地区收集的两只很少见的蚂蚁和一个小妇科动物，它们可能代表与Brachymyrmex depilis有关的未描述物种。我们的计分评论显示，以前很少研究过Palouse Prairie的草原蚂蚁，而在温带草原的更多蚂蚁调查却落后于其他全球生物群落的采样工作。