Ants of the Adirondack Mountains High Peaks 2016

The ants of the Adirondack Mountains are rarely sampled, and it was of interest to inventory their diversity as part of a general biodiversity survey of the Adirondack Park in New York State. A first set of collections were done in 2016 in the “High Peaks” region (mountains over 1200 meters (4000 feet) high). Ants were collected haphazardly from nests encountered by Adirondack Mountain trail stewards during June and July 2016 when they were doing regular botanical inventories and trail maintenance. Eleven species were collected, with the cold-climate species Formica neorufibarbis and Camponotus herculeanus accounting for 75% of the nests encountered. The species composition of ants in the Adirondack High Peaks is similar to that of other alpine and subalpine habitats in adjacent New England.