Fungus-growing ants (Hymenoptera : Formicidae) on Santa Catarina Island, Brazil: Patterns of occurrence

A taxonomic survey on fungus-growing ants (Attini) was made at 14 beaches o n Santa Catarina Island (SC), Brazil. The samplings were manual, in soil or litterfall, in the following habitats: sandy beach, herbaceous vegetation and shrubby vegetation. From 12 species of Attini (ten of Acromyrmex Mayr a nd two of Cyphomyrmex Mayr), the most frequent were Cyphomyrmex morschi Eme ry and Acromyrmex crassispinus Forel, collected, respectively, on eight and ten of the monitored beaches. Altogether, Sorensen's similarity coefficien ts were high (range: 0.59-0.80), in spite of the lower numbers of ant speci es on sandy beaches.