Check List of Ground-dwelling Ant Diversity (hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the Iguazú National Park with a Comparison at Regional Scale

Introduction The Atlantic Forest (AF) of South America houses 7% of the world's species making it one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet (Quintela, 1990 in Stevens & Husband, 1998). In addition to its high biodiversity, the AF is also characterized by high levels of endemism placing it among the world's highest priorities for conservation (Myers et al., 2000; Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003). The AF is considered one of the most endangered tropical rainforests because habitat loss and fragmentation due to agriculture and urbanization which has resulted in a drastic reduction in area Abstract We describe the ant fauna of Iguazú National Park (INP), a region of high biodiversity and endemism in northeastern Argentina that includes the southernmost protected area of the Atlantic Forest (AF). Ants were sampled over seven periods from 1998 to 2011 using a variety of techniques. We also surveyed museum collections and the scientific literature to obtain additional records of ants from INP. In addition to providing a species list, we compare ant composition of INP to other sites in the Upper Paraná, Serra do Mar Coastal Forest and Araucaria ecoregion of AF. A total of 172 ant species belonging to 56 genera are reported; 56 species are new records for Misiones Province and 39 species are reported from Argentina for the first time. Alto Paraná and Canindeyú departments in Paraguay present the most similar ant fauna to INP. Serra da Bodoquena in Brazil and Pilcomayo in Argentina showed higher similarity with the Upper Paraná AF ecoregion, despite that Serra da Bodoquena is composed of a mix of ecoregions. Ant diversity was lower in Upper Paraná than in Serra do Mar Coastal Forest ecoregion. This difference may result from higher primary productivity and a greater altitudinal variation in the coastal region.


Introduction
The Atlantic Forest (AF) of South America houses 7% of the world's species making it one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet (Quintela, 1990in Stevens & Husband, 1998).In addition to its high biodiversity, the AF is also characterized by high levels of endemism placing it among the world's highest priorities for conservation (Myers et al., 2000;Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003).The AF is considered one of the most endangered tropical rainforests because habitat loss and fragmentation due to agriculture and urbanization which has resulted in a drastic reduction in area (Olson & Dinesteirn, 2002;Di Bitetti et al., 2003;Ribeiro et al., 2009).Presently, only 6% of its original extent of 1,000,000 km 2 remains along the east coast of Brazil, in Misiones province in northeastern Argentina, and in eastern Paraguay (Galindo-Leal & Câmara,

Abstract
We describe the ant fauna of Iguazú National Park (INP), a region of high biodiversity and endemism in northeastern Argentina that includes the southernmost protected area of the Atlantic Forest (AF).Ants were sampled over seven periods from 1998 to 2011 using a variety of techniques.We also surveyed museum collections and the scientific literature to obtain additional records of ants from INP.In addition to providing a species list, we compare ant composition of INP to other sites in the Upper Paraná, Serra do Mar Coastal Forest and Araucaria ecoregion of AF.A total of 172 ant species belonging to 56 genera are reported; 56 species are new records for Misiones Province and 39 species are reported from Argentina for the first time.Alto Paraná and Canindeyú departments in Paraguay present the most similar ant fauna to INP.Serra da Bodoquena in Brazil and Pilcomayo in Argentina showed higher similarity with the Upper Paraná AF ecoregion, despite that Serra da Bodoquena is composed of a mix of ecoregions.Ant diversity was lower in Upper Paraná than in Serra do Mar Coastal Forest ecoregion.This difference may result from higher primary productivity and a greater altitudinal variation in the coastal region.

2003
).However, this may be an underestimate; if secondary forest and small fragments are also included, approximaly 11.7% of original AF still remains (Ribeiro et al., 2009).
The Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest ecoregion (UPAF) is located at the southernmost extent of this forest.This region is an area of ecological transition among biomes including: the Cerrado woodlands and savannas to the north, the Pantanal and the Humid Chaco to the west, the Campos and Esteros ecoregion dominated by grasslands to the South, and finally to the east, it intermingles with Araucaria Forests, part of the AF ecoregion complex (Di Bitetti et al., 2003).Also, components of UPAF extend south into Argentina along the Paraná and Uruguay rivers.Next to the Araucaria Forest is the Serra do Mar coastal forest ecoregion that includes one of the two largest remnants of the AF.The second one is the protected area within the UPAF (more than 10,000 km 2 ) located across the Paraná state (Brazil) and Misiones province (Argentina): The Iguaҫu (Br) and Iguazú (Ar) National Parks (Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003).These parks are connected to the south with other areas of conservation and sustainable use given place to what is known as the Misiones green corridor (García Fernández, 2002).These two big remnants and the Misiones province green corridor play an important role in the conservation of AF flora and fauna at a regional scale (Di Bitetti et al., 2003;Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003) because fragmented, poor connected areas or secondary forests cannot hold complete species assemblages sustained over time (e.g.Chiarello, 2000;Silva et al., 2007;Bihn et al., 2010).Given the unique nature of these areas, they are priorities for research for understanding the diversity and conservation value and the maintaining or restoring connectivity among them via land-use planning and restoration of other areas (Ribeiro et al., 2009).
Insects, and particularly ants, are a valuable tool for conservation and restoration purposes as a result of the ecological services they provide (Del-Toro et al., 2012;Small et al., 2013) and their use as environmental, ecological, or biodiversity indicators (see Ribas et al., 2012).Ants are considered as a key component of terrestrial ecosystems, directly or indirectly providing ecological services including seed dispersion control of herbivore populations, acceleration of forest recovery or plant succession, organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling in the soil through their nest building and maintenance (Folgarait, 1998;Wilson & Hölldobler, 2005;Trager et al., 2010;Del-Toro et al., 2012).Measures of ant species richness and functional composition are often used to understand community structure or as indicators of restoration success following great disturbance or environmental change (e.g.Andersen & Majer, 2004;Underwood & Fisher, 2006;Bihn et al., 2010;Pais & Varanda, 2010;Ribas et al., 2012).Conversely, a few ant species that are native in AF (e.g.Linepithema humile, Nylanderia fulva, Solenopsis invicta, Wasmannia auropunctata) have become invasive species around the world causing significant economic and ecological damage (Holway et al., 2002;Del-Toro et al., 2012).Documenting the distribution, ecology, and behavior of native populations of introduced ant species may provide insight for their control and guide monitoring programs for preventing invasions.
Studies on the biogeography and diversity of ants are of particular interest for effective conservation planning at multiple scales.In a global scale, due to ecological relevance and standardized samplings methods, ants are an ideal group to study diversity patterns along continents (Dunn et al., 2007).At a regional scale, while vertebrates tend to persist only in larger forest remnants, invertebrates such as ants are valuable at identifying the conservation value of smaller remnants (Kremen et al., 2008).In the AF, butterflies and birds exhibit species richness peaks in coastal areas of Brazil from 15º to 23°S (Brown & Freitas, 2000;Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003).While some work has been done on the effects of forest loss on local ant assemblages in AF (Silva et al., 2007;Bihn et al., 2008;Bihn et al., 2010) we have little knowledge of ant diversity and its patterns across the AF ecoregion complex.Silva and Brandão (2014) found a weak inverse latitudinal pattern in species richness with richer ant communities in higher than in lower latitudes.Iguazú National Park (INP) in northeastern Argentina represents the southernmost protected area of the AF, however, it remains poorly studied from the perspective of ants; only 5% of all studies conducted in the INP on biodiversity involved ants (http://www2.sib.gov.ar).The main objective of this work was to study the ant diversity in the INP in terms of species richness and species composition and compare these parameters with those from other protected areas located within and around the Atlantic Forest.

Study site
The study was carried out in semi-deciduous subtropical forest within INP, which is located in the northwestern of the Misiones Province, Argentina (25°40'48.54''S,54°27'15.09''W).The park was created in 1934 and covers more than 67,000 ha.The climate is subtropical humid without a defined dry season; annual rainfall ranges between 1800 and 2000 mm, and humidity between 70 and 90%.Mean monthly temperatures range from 15°C (winter) to 26°C (summer).The topography of this region is undulating as a result of the erosion of a network of rivers with elevation running from 0 to 500 m (Devoto & Rothkugel, 1936;Srur et al., 2007).Variations in the local environment and soil properties allow a variety of plant communities to occur including: gallery forests, bamboo forests, palmito (Euterpe edulis) forests, and Araucaria forests (Di Bitetti et al., 2003;Srur et al., 2007).
We compared ant composition of INP to four previously studied areas at similar latitude within the AF: Alto Paraná Department (Wild, 2007), Rio Cachoeira (Bihn et al., 2008), Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardoso (PEIC), and Parque Estadual do Pau Oco (PEPO) (Silva & Brandão, 2014).We also compared our surveys to the Canindeyú Department where a special sampling effort was made in the Mbaracayú forest reserve, a 65,000 ha fragment of AF (Wild, 2007), and Seara municipality in Santa Catarina (South of Brazil) as a represent of the Araucaria Forest ecoregion (Silva & Silvestre, 2004).Finally, we included three other regions neighboring the AF: Serra da Bodoquena National Park (Silvestre et al., 2012), Pilcomayo National Park (Leponce et al., 2004), and Iberá Nature Reserve (Calcaterra et al., 2010).Iberá NR located in Corrientes Province (Argentina) has four main natural habitats (savanna, dry woodlands, gallery forest, and floating islands), but we only included the gallery forest habitat in this study, which share an important vegetation components with the AF (Fig 1).Additional information about the study sites is provided in Table 1.Bihn et al. (2008), Silva and Brandão (2014), Silva and Silvestre (2004), Silvestre et al. (2012) and Leponce et al. (2004).
of each genus when possible.As with other studies conducted in the Neotropics, many individuals from taxonomically difficult genera remain unidentified to species.These individuals were sorted to morphospecies, and when possible, compared across sample periods by PEH and RA (samples from the PEH, CIP and AVS collections).Synonyms and trinomial names were updated following Bolton (2014).

Data analysis
Species richness was compared between INP and those sites of the Serra do Mar Coastal Forest where a similar sampling methodology (e.g.Winkler) was employed.We performed occurrence-based rarefaction curves for incidence data, this allows a standardization removing biases linked for example to ant activity (higher in good climatic conditions) (Gotelli & Colwell, 2001).An occurrence by species incidence matrix was produced for each sites and year of collection using EstimateS 9.0 (Colwell, 2013).We only used the Winkler data set (including morphospecies) from collections made in INP in 1998 and 2008 when the leaf-litter remained 24 and 48 hours in the Winkler, respectively.Winkler extraction is the best technique for capturing ants inhabiting leaf-litter (Agosti et al., 2000;Delabie et al., 2000;Hanisch, 2013), the forest strata usually containing the most ant species.
To evaluate the similarity in the species composition of known ant assemblages among our sites, we performed Nonmetric Multi Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) based on a Jaccard index in a matrix containing presence-absence data.NMDS is an appropriated method for non-normal data and does not assume linear relationships among variables (Mac Cune & Mefford, 1999).We used Jaccard index as a measure of similarity, as this index gives the same weight to mismatches (0,1 or 1,0) and matches (1,1) of presence/absence of species between two sites.Due to unresolved taxonomy, most studies included contain a high number of morphospecies in known diverse genera (e.g.Pheidole, Hypoponera, and Solenopsis).We excluded these genera so our comparisons were not compromised by different estimates of undescribed species in diverse but unresolved groups.We also excluded exclusively arboreal genera (e.g.Cephalotes) because nearly all studies focused on litter and soil ants.This allowed us to compare the ant community among sites based on common sampling techniques and taxa for which the taxonomy was best resolved, but without having to rely solely on common species.Analyses were performed using PC-ORD 4.0 software (Mac Cune & Mefford, 1999).We also performed a cluster analysis in R (R Core Team, 2014) using Jaccard index and UPGMA method with the vegan (Oksanen et al., 2014) and cluster (Maechler et al., 2014) packages.Cutting level was defined as the maximum dissimilarity value between nodes height.To test if groups obtained with the cluster analyses were different of those expected by chance, we performed a nonparametric Analysis of Similarity (ANOSIM) with PAST v.3.04 software (Hammer et al., 2001).1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2011 are shown in black dots.
Our surveys were supplemented by examining previous collections and published records including: IMML, MACN, and Antweb.org(California Academy of Sciences).We assessed if any ants could be qualified as new records for INP or the country of Argentina based on the absence of the species in the main catalogs of Neotropical and Argentinean ant species listed in Appendix.

Ant identification
Ants were sorted to species using available taxonomic keys.To confirm identifications, we sent samples to specialists

Ant Diversity
After pooling all collection events between 1998 and 2011, we recorded 172 ant species belonging to 56 genera and 10 subfamilies for INP: Amblyoponinae (2 species), Dolichoderinae ( 14), Dorylinae (10), Ectatomminae (7), Formicinae (21), Heteroponerinae (4), Myrmicinae (85), Ponerinae (21), Proceratiinae (1), Pseudomyrmecinae (7).Among them, 56 were new to province and 39 new to country (Appendix).Including unidentified morphospecies not shown in Appendix, the total number of species increased to 203 species: Brachymyrmex (1), Hypoponera (1), Nesomyrmex (1), Nylanderia (1), Pheidole (8), Solenopsis (18) and Pseudomyrmex (1) Of the 172 species recorded in INP, 141 species (82%) were captured during our surveys, while the remaining species were recorded from museum or personal collections.Eighty seven of these 141 species (61%) were captured using Winkler, 39 (28%) in pitfall traps, 26 (18%) were attracted to baits placed above the ground, and 17 (12%) were attracted to subterranean baits.Concerning the strata, 66 species (47%) were collected on the soil surface using pitfall traps, baits and hand collecting, 86 (61%) in the leaf-litter, 22 (15%) in the soil (using subterranean bait and soil sieving), and 14 (10%) on the vegetation.The most diverse genera were Pheidole with 19 species followed by Camponotus with 15 species.The NMDS ordination and cluster analyses of the different regions show the same visual grouping among sites except within the UPAF sites (Table 1, Fig 4a,b).The dendrogram obtained by hierarchical methods identified six groups (Fig 4a) that were concordant in general with the belonged ecoregion of each site (Table 1).However, these visual differences among groups were marginally not significant (ANOSIM, R=0.90, p=0.06).Visual grouping suggested that Canindeyú and Alto Paraná Departments were the most similar sites to INP.Moreover, UPAF was more similar to Serra da Bodoquena and Pilcomayo than to Serra do Mar coastal forests and Araucaria Forest ecoregion (Cachoeira, PEPO, PEIC and Seara municipality).However, the percent of species shared with INP was very similar among these   2013) assumption that rather than a locally uncommon species it is a broadly distributed but rarely collected species.Several ant genera/species, such as Eurhopalothrix (Ketterl et al., 2004) and Eciton quadriglume (Watkins, 1976), that were expected to be collected given their known distribution in the AF have not been found during this study.

Discussion
We report the first compilation of ant species identified for Iguazú National Park (172 species), 141 species registered only from our samplings and the remained species were retrieved from museum collections and literature.More ant species will be added to our list and results could change once the status of some morphospecies will be resolved.Fifty six species were new to province and 39 new to Argentina.The majority of morphospecies that we could not identify belonged to diverse ant genera that include many similar species and also lack taxonomic resources for the region (e.g Solenopsis, Pheidole).As in other Neotropical studies Pheidole was the most diverse genus with 19 species (Silva et al., 2007;Donoso & Ramón, 2009) followed by Camponotus (15 species).The most efficient technique to capture ant species was Winkler litter sampling, however, other methodologies including subterranean baits and hand collecting provided some unique records (e.g.Linepithema neotropicum and Heteroponera microps; Appendix).Because our methods concentrated on ground dwelling fauna, the list of canopy ant species is underestimated.
Due to the high heterogeneity of the AF (Galindo-Leal & Câmara, 2003) and the heterogeneous sampling efforts of the ant surveys, the estimated ant richness for the studied regions of the AF is very variable among sites.In Paraguay, Wild (2007) found a total of 285 species in Canindeyú Department (mostly found in Mbaracayú forest reserve), but only 89 species in Alto Paraná Department, which is the closest study site to the INP.This is probably due to the lower sampling effort used and the poorer conservation state of this latter department.Silva and Brandão (2014)    species over a four-year study.Despite that sampling was conducted in multiple years, sampling efforts concentrated on hand collection and systematic Winkler sampling and pitfall trapping in a sector of easy access of the INP close to the Iguazú river.Truly comprehensive faunal surveys take much more effort.For example, in a long term study (23 years) in the tropical forest of La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, Longino et al. (2002) found 437 ant species.La Selva station is a small area (1,500 ha) when compared with the INP (~67,000 ha) or the Cachoeira reserve (8,700 ha).Our survey covered only approximately 15 ha of INP (0.02% of its surface) in seven sampling opportunities using several sampling methods, where most sampling sites were clumped in an easy-access area of the Park (Fig 2).As a consequence, other habitat types present in the park were not sampled, which potentially may have increased our ant species list.Because Canindeyú Department represents so far the best studied area of UPAF and shows a similar ant species composition with INP (Fig 4a, b), ant richness in INP may be similar to that of Canindeyú (~300 ground-dwelling ant species; Wild 2007).
The diversity of ground-dwelling ant species in the AF seems to increase slightly with latitude along the Brazilian coast (Silva & Brandão, 2014) and to decrease with the distance from the coast (Fig 3).The longitudinal pattern found in this work is consistent with other taxa studied like birds and butterflies (Brown & Freitas, 2000;Galindo-Leal & Câmara 2003).Ribeiro et al. (2009) concluded that the northern AF is presently in more dire need of conservation compared to the southern part, with the exception of the large mosaic in the south of the Bahia region.This could mean that the observed latitudinal pattern in species richness could be a consequence of better conservation status in the southern AF.Also, a latitudinal gradient in primary productivity could be an alternative explanation for this pattern (Silva & Brandão, 2014;Kaspari et al., 2000).
In a large-scale leaf litter ant diversity study performed by Ward (2000), altitude and latitude alone account for 47% of the variance in ant species richness; species richness peaked at mid-elevations in the tropics.In the UPAF the elevation ranges from 0 to 500 m in contrast with those sites of Serra do Mar coastal ecoregion with montane and submontane forests (0 to 1000 m).Larger elevation ranges could lead to a greater diversification and niche availability, resulting in higher species richness in ants as in other organisms (Brown & Freitas, 2000).Also, Sanders (2002) showed that other parameters, often confounded with area, can also play an important role in determining species richness patterns along elevation gradients.
Our survey of the incidence of ant species at a regional scale suggests that the sites studied in the AF grouped according to each ecoregion (Fig 4a, b; Table 1).However, ant species composition was similar among all sites despite their strong environmental heterogeneity.Many widespread species were shared among the different sites.However, it is important to consider that these results were based on tractable taxonomic species (i.e., excluding morphospecies of difficult genera), limiting our interpretation of this pattern.Undoubtedly, these genera are characteristic components of the structure of local communities and the general pattern reported in this survey may change if more complete community compositions are estimated.Despite this limitation, we still found differences in ant composition among sites.
Most habitats within UPAF held a similar ant fauna (Fig 4).Canindeyú Department, despite belonging also to the Cerrado ecosystem, was similar in composition to INP (Fig 4a).Surprisingly, Serra da Bodoquena, a seasonal deciduous and semi deciduous forests with important influences of surrounding different biotas showed a closed relation with the UPAF.Cachoeira NR, PEIC, and PEPO are characterized by lowland and submontane forests, with vegetation adapted to the sea when approaching to the coast (e.g.mangroves and restinga) (Bihn et al. 2008).These vegetation differences together with the broader range of altitudes, probably increases the difference among ant communities of UPAF and Serra do Mar coastal forest ecoregion, making UPAF be more similar to Serra da Bodoquena.Of the total ant species found in the gallery forest of Iberá (15 species excluding morphospecies), a high proportion were shared with INP (Fig 5), including the most widespread species (e.g. A. pilosum, Camponotus rufipes, Pachycondyla striata, S. louisianae).
INP includes the native range of many ant species introduced in other regions of the world, including L. humile, N. fulva, Pheidole obscurithorax, S. invicta and W. auropunctata (McGlynn, 1999;Holway et al., 2002).However, most (if not all) source populations of these species are from further South along the corridor formed by the Paraná and Paraguay rivers from Buenos Aires to Formosa province (Calcaterra et al., 2015).Some of these species are not common within INP.For example, L. humile was collected in 1995 by J. M. Ramírez (IMML collection) but was not found in our surveys (Appendix).In fact, other species of Linepithema are much more common within the forest.Solenopsis invicta was often collected in open, disturbed environments in INP (e.g.near buildings and paths), but not collected in traps placed within the forest.Further ecological studies on these species in their native ranges could enlighten biological control methods for invaded areas and also help identify how abiotic and biotic factors select for traits that confer invasion success.
Our work contributes to the general knowledge of ant diversity in the extreme south of the AF (subtropical), one of their less studied regions, where we make a special effort identifying the majority of the capture species.Our results suggest that study sites between Upper Paraná and Serra do Mar Coastal Atlantic Forest ecoregion should be added to improve our knowledge of the longitudinal pattern and species turnover of ant species diversity in the AF.For INP, more dispersed collection sites would potentially targeted different habitat types, which would include unknown ant species.Regarding Francisco, California, USA.Records collected by the authors and stored in the MACN are mark as MACN A to make a distinction from old records review in the museum collection.The abbreviation cf.before species name that were not included in published taxonomic list, means proximity to that species but require more taxonomic research and were considered as a new record, but subjective to be test against literature (Cont.).

Fig 1 .
Fig 1. Locations of sampled areas in Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina used to compare myrmecological fauna against Iguazú National Park.Atlantic Forest is delimited by dotted areas meanwhile Upper Paraná ecoregion is shown with straight lines.Within both regions remnants of forest are shown in grey.

Fig 2 .
Fig 2. Area comprised by the National Park of Iguazú (INP) in grey within Misiones province, Argentina pointed by the arrow.Survey points during years1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2011   are shown in black dots.
Rarefaction curves based on Winkler sampling suggested that the Serra do Mar Coastal Forests (PEPO and PEIC) located at the same latitude of INP are richer in grounddwelling ant species than INP (Fig 3).The estimated richness was clearly higher in PEPO than in INP (both years), based conservatively on non-overlapping confidence intervals.PEPO and 2008 INP sampling showed higher values over PEIC and 1998 INP respectively, however, these values are within the overlap in confidence intervals (Fig 3).

Fig 4a .
Fig 4a.Six clusters were defined according to the similarity found in the presence-absence matrix of 261 ant species among 10 sites.Cluster analysis based on Jaccard index and UPGMA as linkage method.Cophenetic correlation=0.93.Dashed line shows the level of cut used to group sites.We applied maximum dissimilarity value between node height as criteria for cutting level of dendrogram.Supplementary material available at: http://periodicos.uefs.br/ojs/index.php/sociobiology/rt/suppFiles/724/0doi: 10.13102/sociobiology.v62i2.219-233.s650 studying the leaf-litter ant fauna found 94 and 105 species in PEIC and PEPO AF sites, respectively.In our case, employing the same methodology and similar sampling effort, we found 79 species for INP (1998 sampling) using only Winkler sacs (Fig 3).In Serra da Bodoquena, Silvestre et al. (2012) found 170

Fig 4b .
Fig 4b.Ordination of sites according to NMDS analysis, based on Jaccard index.Stress = 0.11 Presence-absence matrix of 261 species.

Fig 5 .
Fig 5. Percent of ant species of each site exclusive and shared with the Iguazú National Park recorded in Paraguay (Alto Paraná y Canindeyú departments), Brazil (Cachoeira NR, PE do Pau Oco, PE da Ilha do Cardoso, Serra da Bodoquena), and Argentina (Iberá NR and Pilcomayo NP).

Table 1 .
Ant sampling sites used in this study, coordinates, habitat components and sampling information.More information in Hanisch (2013), Calcaterra et al. (2010), Wild (2007), Ant species collected from Iguazú National Park.Capture methodology is as follows: W (Winkler sacs), SB (subterranean baits), S (soil samples), HC (hand collecting), B (baits), P (pitfalls).Bibliography of species with previous records is provided.(*) new record only for Misiones province, (**) new record for Argentina.Abbreviations of entomological collections used in this study: MACN Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; IMML the Institute and Museum Miguel Lillo, Tucumán Argentina; RBINS Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; LC Luis Calcaterra personal collection, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina; AVS Andrew V. Suarez personal collection, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA; BMNH British Museum of Natural History, London, UK; CASC California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA.Records collected by the authors and stored in the MACN are mark as MACN A to make a distinction from old records review in the museum collection.The abbreviation cf.before species name that were not included in published taxonomic list, means proximity to that species but require more taxonomic research and were considered as a new record, but subjective to be test against literature.Ant species collected from Iguazú National Park.Capture methodology is as follows: W (Winkler sacs), SB (subterranean baits), S (soil samples), HC (hand collecting), B (baits), P (pitfalls).Bibliography of species with previous records is provided.(*) new record only for Misiones province, (**) new record for Argentina.Abbreviations of entomological collections used in this study: MACN Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; IMML the Institute and Museum Miguel Lillo, Tucumán Argentina; RBINS Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; LC Luis Calcaterra personal collection, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina; AVS Andrew V. Suarez personal collection, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA; BMNH British Museum of Natural History, London, UK; CASC California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA.Records collected by the authors and stored in the MACN are mark as MACN A to make a distinction from old records review in the museum collection.The abbreviation cf.before species name that were not included in published taxonomic list, means proximity to that species but require more taxonomic research and were considered as a new record, but subjective to be test against literature (Cont.).Ant species collected from Iguazú National Park.Capture methodology is as follows: W (Winkler sacs), SB (subterranean baits), S (soil samples), HC (hand collecting), B (baits), P (pitfalls).Bibliography of species with previous records is provided.(*) new record only for Misiones province, (**) new record for Argentina.Abbreviations of entomological collections used in this study: MACN Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; IMML the Institute and Museum Miguel Lillo, Tucumán Argentina; RBINS Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; LC Luis Calcaterra personal collection, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina; AVS Andrew V. Suarez personal collection, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA; BMNH British Museum of Natural History, London, UK; CASC California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA.Records collected by the authors and stored in the MACN are mark as MACN A to make a distinction from old records review in the museum collection.The abbreviation cf.before species name that were not included in published taxonomic list, means proximity to that species but require more taxonomic research and were considered as a new record, but subjective to be test against literature (Cont.).Ant species collected from Iguazú National Park.Capture methodology is as follows: W (Winkler sacs), SB (subterranean baits), S (soil samples), HC (hand collecting), B (baits), P (pitfalls).Bibliography of species with previous records is provided.(*) new record only for Misiones province, (**) new record for Argentina.Abbreviations of entomological collections used in this study: MACN Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; IMML the Institute and Museum Miguel Lillo, Tucumán Argentina; RBINS Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; LC Luis Calcaterra personal collection, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina; AVS Andrew V. Suarez personal collection, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA; BMNH British Museum of Natural History, London, UK; CASC California Academy of Sciences, San