Three-dimensional distribution of ant nest in an African rainforest

In the general context of tropical rainforests, ants are species rich, abundant and certain species ecologically dominant. We focus this study on African species living in the three strata (i.e., the ground, the understorey and the canopy) plus the edge of the rainforest in the Campo Ma'an National Park of Cameroon. We looked for ant colonies permitting us to identify 153 ant species from eight subfamilies and 46 genera; the estimation based on rarefaction and extrapolation curves was 164–210 species.