Our research group has spent three very successful summers collecting leaf litter ants in deciduous forests of the Park. We have also processed all of the samples from Chuck Parker’s “pilot ATBI study.” Here, we propose to continue sampling leaf litter ants in GSMNP. This year, we will (1) focus on ants in three genera which we know little about (Pyramica, Stenamma, and Myrmica) and (2) direct our collecting toward high-elevation sites and areas which continue to yield potentially new species.

Family Count Graph: GenusCountAcGraph.pdf

Species Ranking: SpeciesDistributionRanking.pdf

Species Report: Taxonomy.pdf

Upper Taxa List: UpperTaxa.pdf

Principal Investigator

PI Name:  Dr. Nathan Sanders

PI Organization:  University of Tennessee, Knoxville