OBJECTIVES

Most of the ants have either a direct or an indirect relationship with vegetation. Some of these are highly specific to the habitat in which they occur, depending on the maximum benefits they attain for nesting, mating and food availability. Their preferences of microhabitat due to the above mentioned criteria were investigated by sampling ant fauna in various habitats along with mapping the vegetation using remote sensing and GIS (macro level analyses) to provide a detailed idea of the distribution of ant fauna, endemism and changes in patterns with habitat. By further determination of spatial distribution of certain indicator ant species the degree of stress and disturbance for prioritising conservation strategies for this section of the Western Ghats was analysed.