CAN PREDATORS MAINTAIN PARAPATRY - ANT DISTRIBUTION ACROSS A TICK PARAPATRIC BOUNDARY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Ants were sampled by pitfall traps at 85 sites, 0.5 or 1.0 km apart, a long six transects across a parapatric boundary between the reptile ti cks Aponomma hydrosauri and Amblyomma, limbatum near Mt Mary in South Australia. There was no tendency for overall ant density, or for the d istribution of any single species of ant, to be related to the tick di stribution. Thus the survey found no support for the hypothesis that p redation by ants was maintaining the boundary. Along transects there w ere no correlations between ant and tick densities. Thus the survey fo und no support for the hypothesis that ant predation was a major facto r controlling tick densities. These negative results provide further e vidence that single, strong ecological processes cannot explain this w ell-studied parapatric boundary.