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ABSTRACT
Benin moat, commonly known as ‘Iya’ by the indigenous people of Benin, houses diverse array of uncatalogued life forms. Here, the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) inhabiting leaf litters within a section of the moat in Benin City were surveyed using leaf litter samplers. Twenty four samples of ants were collected from the forest floor on both sides of the moat wall. Results showed that 15 species represented by 12 genera and 3 subfamilies were identified while one remains to be identified for lack of reference material. The obtained diversity indices viz.: Simpson, Shannon-Wiener, Pielou Evenness and Dominance indices, and the observed species richness indicated that the moat transitioning from a pristine environment to a disturbed one. The true taxa richness of ants as obtained from three non-parametric estimators viz.: first and second order Jackknife and Chao yielded between 58.18% and 84.21% of the ant species resident in leaf litters. Of these, Cardiocondyla sekhemka were the most abundant species with a relative abundance of 48.33%, followed by Pheidole welgelegenensis with a relative abundance of 24.44%. In all, three subfamilies namely Myrmicinae, Ponerinae and Formicinae were encountered in decreasing order of abundance. Interestingly, the presence of two Monomorium opacum and Pheidole welgelegenensis in leaf litter seems to be the first reported case in Nigeria. The foremost implication of these findings showcases the ecological relevance of Benin moat as a conservation haven for biodiversity albeit situated at the centre of a highly urbanised space, hitherto unknown to accommodate a wide
