Diversity of social organization, parasites and symbionts in tropical ants.

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Social structure, symbionts and parasites of ant colonies, and local ant fauna were investigated in Indonesia and Malaysia. Ant fauna in Bogor Botanic Gardens, west Java, Indonesia was reported. Even though the Botanical gardens located in the center of city, we collected 216 ant species. Social structure of ponerine ants was investigated, and we found clear relationship between social structure and habitat characteristics : gamergate species (reproduced by mated workers)were common in disturbed area while ergatoid species (reproduced by wingless queens) were common in forests. Furthermore, in Gnamptogenys, gamergate species was collected in humid tropics (West Malaysia and Sumatera) while ergatoid species was found in seasonal tropics (east Java). These relationships between social structure and habitat condition seems to be explained by the frequency of opportunity of colonial fission. Relationship between social structure and symbiont biology was examined for Myrmecina. Morphological and behavioral specialization of symbionts is apparently related to social structure of host ants : ant species with ergatoid queens only have very specialized symbionts.