Tropical ecosystems are often biodiversity hotspots, and invertebrates represent the main underrepresented component of diversity in large-scale analyses. This problem is partly related to the scarcity of data widely available to conduct these studies and the lack of systematic organization of knowledge about invertebrates' distributions in biodiversity hotspots. Here, we introduce and analyze a comprehensive data compilation of Amazonian ant diversity. Using records from 1817 to 2020 from both published and unpublished sources, we describe the diversity and distribution of ant species in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Further, using high-definition images and data from taxonomic publications, we build a comprehensive database of morphological traits for the ant species that occur in the region. In total, we recorded 1067 nominal species in the Brazilian Amazon Basin, with sampling locations strongly biased by access routes, urban centers, research institutions and major infrastructure projects. Large areas where ant sampling is non-existent represent about 52% of the basin and are concentrated mainly in the northern, southeastern and western Brazilian Amazon. We found that distance to roads is the main driver of ant sampling in the Amazon. Contrary to our expectations, morphological traits had lower predictive power in predicting sampling bias than purely geographic variables. However, when geographic predictors were controlled, habitat stratum and traits contribute to explain the remaining variance. More species were recorded in better-sampled areas, but species richness estimation models suggest that areas in southern Amazonian edge forests are associated with especially high species richness. Our results represent the first trait-based, large-scale study for insects in Amazonian forests and a starting point for macroecological studies focusing on insect diversity in the Amazon Basin.

中文翻译：

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巴西亚马逊流域蚂蚁多样性的大规模评估：整合采样偏差的地理、生态和形态驱动因素

热带生态系统通常是生物多样性热点，在大规模分析中，无脊椎动物代表了多样性中代表性不足的主要成分。这个问题部分与缺乏广泛可用于进行这些研究的数据以及缺乏关于生物多样性热点中无脊椎动物分布的知识的系统组织有关。在这里，我们介绍和分析亚马逊蚂蚁多样性的综合数据汇编。我们使用来自已发表和未发表来源的 1817 年至 2020 年的记录，描述了巴西亚马逊流域蚂蚁物种的多样性和分布。此外，我们使用来自分类学出版物的高清图像和数据，建立了该地区蚂蚁物种形态特征的综合数据库。总共，我们在巴西亚马逊流域记录了 1067 个标称物种，采样位置受到访问路线、城市中心、研究机构和重大基础设施项目的严重影响。不存在蚂蚁采样的大面积区域约占流域的 52%，主要集中在巴西亚马逊北部、东南部和西部。我们发现到道路的距离是亚马逊蚂蚁采样的主要驱动力。与我们的预期相反，形态特征在预测抽样偏差方面的预测能力低于纯粹的地理变量。然而，当地理预测因子受到控制时，栖息地层和特征有助于解释剩余的方差。更多的物种被记录在更好的采样区域，但物种丰富度估计模型表明，亚马逊河流域南部边缘森林地区与特别高的物种丰富度有关。我们的结果代表了第一个基于特征的亚马逊森林昆虫大规模研究，也是亚马逊流域昆虫多样性宏观生态学研究的起点。