This study examined ant species richness in Jaragua National Park (Pedernales Province, Dominican Republic). Ants were sampled at 15 sites during late March and early April, 2012. Habitats sampled included dry forest, beach scrub, lakeside acacia scrub, and thorn woodland. Sixty-four species from 23 genera were collected. Species richness was higher than expected, considering only 125 species had previously been reported for all of Hispaniola. Jaragua National Park is part of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve. The ant species richness observed in this study suggests that the park, along with larger reserve, is successful in preserving important habitat for insects. 1. Introduction The Caribbean region is notable for its biodiversity and endemism [1–3]. The larger islands of the West Indies (Greater Antilles) in particular harbor some of the area’s most diverse floras and faunas. Hispaniola (Figure 1) has the second largest land area (Cuba = 104,556？km2 and Hispaniola = 48,442？km2) and the widest elevation range (three mountain summits > 3000？m to a ？40？m saline lake depression) and was once covered by a variety of natural habitats. While native peoples disturbed the island’s land to some unknown extent, notable and sustained habitat loss began with the arrival of European explorers more than 500 years ago. Today only a small percentage of naturally occurring habitat remains. Figure 1: A map of the island of Hispaniola, the approximate location of the park in Hispaniola, and a map of Jaragua National Park. The Dominican Republic town of Pedernales, shown just beyond the northwestern boundary of the park, shares a border with the Haitian town of Anse-à-Pitres. Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola and is ecologically devastated. The Dominican Republic comprises the remaining two-thirds of the island and has one of the most comprehensive national park systems in the Caribbean. These parks collectively cover a large area, encompass a range of habitats, and are known to be important for supporting local and regional avian richness [4–6]. Beyond birds and a few other vertebrate groups, most animal taxa occurring on Hispaniola are poorly known, to the extent that we do not even have a fair accounting of their within-group species diversity. Studying and documenting invertebrate biodiversity in natural habitats is needed simply to learn more about what species occur here. Such work can produce valuable baseline data and can be used to inform assessments of how well habitat preservation may be facilitating the conservation of
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