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Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set, which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers, is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1,059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the 19th and 20th centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed to address specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and region‐wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences, and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.

Criada em 1990, a Coleção de Formicidae do Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau (CPDC) conta atualmente com cerca de 500.000 espécimes, em geral montados a seco, correspondendo a aproximadamente 4.000 espécies nominais e morfoespécies. Além da coleção geral, existe uma pequena coleção de tipos e uma biblioteca de pesquisa no âmbito do Laboratório de Mirmecologia. O laboratório é multi-institucional e a curadoria da CPDC está hoje dividida entre J.H.C. Delabie (Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau/Comissão Executiva de Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira – CEPEC/CEPLAC e Universidade Estadual Santa Cruz - UESC) e A. Arnhold (Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia - UFSB). O bioma Mata Atlântica, sobretudo da Bahia e do Espírito Santo, está particularmente bem representado, com séries de amostras provenientes de florestas, manguezais, cacauais, sistemas agroflorestais, pastagens e outros cultivos regionais. A coleção contribui também na conservação de muito material biológico brasileiro da região amazônica, do Cerrado, da Caatinga e de outros países da região neotropical, assim como de outras regiões biogeográficas. A dinâmica de incorporação do material biológico na coleção é detalhada ao longo do texto, assim como as perspectivas de desenvolvimento das futuras ações previstas em torno da Coleção CPDC, em parcerias com a UESC e a UFSB.

Resumo-Coleópteros da família Chrysomelidae são importantes pragas no Brasil por causarem injúrias e afetarem o crescimento das árvores. Dentre os crisomelideos, a subfamília Eumolpinae possui maior número de espécies registradas como pragas. O objetivo deste estudo foi registrar a ocorrência e avaliar o ataque de Costalimaita lurida (Lefévre, 1891) em um plantio de Eucalyptus spp. no norte de Minas Gerais. O ataque foi observado em setembro de 2006, em plantio com 12 meses de idade, com as seguintes espécies injuriadas: Eucalyptus grandis, E. saligna, E. urophylla, E. robusta, um híbrido entre E. grandis e E. urophylla e também Corymbia torelliana. Termos para indexação: Besouro desfolhador, Corymbia torelliana, praga. Occurrence of Costalimaita lurida (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Eucalyptus spp. in Minas Gerais state, Brazil Abstract-Chrysomelids are important pests in forest plantations because they cause injuries and affect tree growth. Among the chrysomelid, Eumolpinae subfamily presents the greatest number of species recorded as pest. The purpose of this study was to register the occurrence and evaluate the attack of Costalimaita lurida (Lefévre, 1891) in a plantation of Eucalyptus spp. in the northern of Minas Gerais state. The attack was observed in September 2006 on a twelve months old plantation of age with the following species being injuried: Eucalyptus grandis, E. saligna, E. urophylla, E. robusta, a hybrid of E. grandis and E. urophylla and also Corymbia torelliana.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the diversity and specificity of ant-hemipteran mutualisms according to the different structures observed on cocoa trees. The experiment was carried out in two cocoa planting systems: cabruca and derruba total at Ilhéus, Brazil. We made observations and collected monthly over one year the mutualistic ants and hemipterans that occurred on Theobroma cacao L. trees. Observations were performed on cacao trees at three distinct sites of the plant: flowers, pods and leaf flush. We observed 932 ant-hemipteran associations, comprising 203 different mutualistic interactions. The assemblage was composed of 26 hemipteran species and 54 ant species. No differences were observed in the ant community, however, we found differences in the hemipteran community according to the different structure evaluated. We recorded a total of 404 trophobiosis events on pods, 394 on leaf flushes and 134 on flowers. Our results point out the diversity of ant-hemipteran trophobioses in the cocoa agrosystems resembles the diversity found in tropical forests and demonstrate that the location of interactions may result in ecological restrictions for some organisms involved in these trophobioses in cacao agrosystems.

Composed of two main forest formations, Ombrophilous Forest and Seasonal Forest, the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome is constituted currently by a mosaic of forest remnants and secondary vegetation. Representatives of the Ponerinae ant genus Neoponera are observed mainly in both wet and seasonally dry forests. The aim of this study was to approach the diversity of the genus Neoponera in the north of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil (from the extreme north of its distribution to the Doce River hydrographic basin in the south), associating the occurrence of ant species with the types of vegetation. We have compiled occurrence data from the collection of the Myrmecology Laboratory of the Cocoa Research Center, on internet, or available in literature. We found information on 23 species of Neoponera, including a new record for the Atlantic Forest, Neoponera globularia (Mackay & Mackay, 2010), and a new record for Brazil, Neoponera fiebrigi Forel, 1912. The relative composition of the Neoponera assemblages was evaluated according to the types of vegetation. We found that the occurrence of the genus Neoponera is mainly related to the types of vegetation of the focus region, principally dense forests where a higher diversity was observed.

The state of the art of Formicidae biogeographic studies using distribution modeling tools was reviewed. We aimed to evaluate how and for what purpose such tools were used in ant studies, as well as detecting modeling methods, algorithms, and variables selected for these studies. We analyzed papers published from 2001 to 2021 and focused on predicting invasion risks, conservation, and potential distribution of species. We also considered the mechanistic and correlative approaches, types of algorithms, and environmental variables. We observed that modeling is first used to predict invasion risks before conservation. The correlative approach was the most used, although it does not consider biotic or physiological aspects as the mechanistic approach does. The most used algorithm was Maxent, combining data set of occurrences with climatic variables. Nine studies used combinations of algorithms with consensual models. Research using modeling has been conducted more and more. However, it remains still incipient, mainly regarding conservation, as the current distribution of most of the Formicidae species is not well known. Although not frequently used in ant studies, distribution modeling represents an important approach for research in biogeography, ecology, and related areas. Certain perspectives could be useful, for example, for studying climatic changes, since possible variations in ant distributions, if anticipated, could suggest or guide further investigations or decision-making in public policies.