DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnkc
title: Hunting habits die hard: Conserved prey preferences in army ants across two distant neotropical rainforests

description: Army ants are widely recognized as keystone species in neotropical
 rainforests due to their role as important arthropod predators. Their
 large-scale raids involve thousands of workers scouring the forest floor
 in pursuit of prey, primarily capturing other invertebrates. Up to 20
 species of army ants coexist in a rainforest, and dietary niche
 differentiation has been proposed as a mechanism to alleviate competition
 among them. Based on only a handful of study sites, however, our
 understanding of the precise dietary preferences and the extent of niche
 differentiation remains notably limited. In this study, we aimed to expand
 our knowledge of army ant communities by resolving an Ecuadorian predation
 network consisting of 244 prey species and 13 army ant species
 representing the five known neotropical army ant
 genera: Cheliomyrmex, Eciton, Labidus, Neivamyrmex, and Nomamyrmex. We collected 2156 prey items from 180 army ant raids/emigrations, and of these, we identified 1945 prey items to the family level, 1313 to the genus level, and 664 to the species level based on morphological identifications and DNA barcodes. Prey consisted primarily of other ants (1843 prey items; 153 ant species), to the largest part ant brood (N = 1726). Hence, most army ant species chiefly plundered the nests of other ants, while the three swarm raiding species, that is, Lab. praedator, Lab. spininodis, and Ec. burchellii, exhibited a relatively high proportion of non-ant invertebrate prey in their diet. The predation network showed a high degree of specialization (H2′ = 0.65), characterized by little dietary niche overlap among sympatric species. We compared the Ecuadorian network with one previously studied in Costa Rica and found that, despite the large geographic distance, prey preferences remained remarkably similar. We discovered species-specific preferences for captured ant genera and species, despite some species turnover in both army ants and prey. Additionally, army ants also exhibited consistent spatiotemporal raiding preferences across study sites. In conclusion, predation preferences within army ant communities exhibited consistency in multiple niche dimensions across two distant neotropical rainforests, suggesting a notable level of predictability within army ant predation networks.
description: The study was carried out at
 the Reserva Río Canandé (0.5263 N, -79.2129 E) in Ecuador during April to
 June 2018, February to May 2019, and September to October 2021. The
 research area was characterized by a mosaic of primary and secondary
 forests, agricultural land, pastures, and monocultural cocoa plantations.
 We collected prey of 13 army ant species and identified the prey based on
 morphological identification and DNA barcode analysis. For details see the
 associated publication.
description: # Hunting habits die hard: Conserved prey preferences in neotropical army
 ants across distant neotropical rainforests
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnkc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnkc) The deposited file (denoted as Dryad file 1) provides supplemental information to the article "Hunting habits die hard: Conserved prey preferences in neotropical army ants across distant neotropical rainforests". ## Description of the data and file structure Dryad file S1: Provides information about prey items, including GenBank accession numbers of DNA barcodes, BOLD process IDs and BIN numbers, collection information, information on associated army ants, prey identification and prey life stages, network matrices, and the number of BINs per species. Abbreviations: NA: data not available, which can refer to any missing data, including missing DNA barcode data, missing information on taxonomic identification, missing geographic coordinates, and missing information on lifestage details. Filetype: Microsoft Excel-file (.xlsx) with several tabs ## Sharing/Access information Linked data such as DNA barcode sequences are available on BOLD Systems (https://www.boldsystems.org/) under the project code: PREEC.