Ant communities in Bengal Delta with special reference to the weaver ant

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26304014
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Ogata Kazuo 九州大学, 熱帯農学研究センター, 教授 (40224092)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 江口 克之 首都大学東京, 理工学研究科, 准教授 (30523419) ; 高須 啓志 九州大学, 農学研究院, 教授 (50212006) ; 細石 真吾 九州大学, 熱帯農学研究センター, 助教 (80571273)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 系統生物地理 / ツムギアリ / バングラデシュ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of the present study is to explore the ant communities in Bangladesh with special reference to the weaver ant. The weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, is distributed from India through SE Asia to Northern Australia and tropical Western Pacific Islands. In the previous phylogeographic study, the populations were divided into 7 groups, of which samples from Bangladesh have been reported to belong to SE Asian group.
We have surveyed 47 Districts of Bangladesh including over 90 colonies of weaver ant and analyzed the phylogeography during 2013 to 2018. Our analysis showed that western Bangladesh was occupied by mitochondrial Indian haplotypes, whereas the eastern part was dominated by SE Asian clade. The central parts consisted of the mixture of both Indian and SE Asian clades. This result suggested that the Indian and Souheast Asian clades of O. smaragdina expanded their distribution northward after glaciation and the two clades supposedly encountered in Bangladesh.

Free Research Field

昆虫学