ABSTRACT
From 1963 to 1980, the soil and ground dwelling populations of a guinea savanna and of an evergreen rain forest. The eveness of ant community, based on C. E. Shannon's and E. C. Pielou's formulas is better in forest where the environmental factors at the soil level are more equilibrated than in savanna. In relation with a more omnivorous diet, the other ant species belonging to the subfamilies Myrmcinae, Dolichoderinae, Formicinae, hunt from the soil surface and the vegetation to the top of the trees. In evergreen forest, soil fauna can be considered as a block totally separated from the canopy fauna. In forest due to the lower number of workers and specialized diet of many of them, competition for space and prey seems to play a less important role. The chapter presents some of the conclusions emerging from the quantitative study of the spatial organization and the role of ants in the food webs.
