A Case Study on Urban Ant Fauna of Southern Kyusyu, Japan, with Notes on a New Monitoring Protocol (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Ant fauna of a green buffer belt adjacent to an industrial zone in Kagoshima City, southern Kyushu, Japan was elucidated using a standardized protocol. A total of 39 species belonging to 24 genera in five subfamilies were recorded from this park. Most speciose genera are Camponotus and Tetramorium having four species. The number of species per genus is 1.56 on average. Pheidole noda F. Smith, Monomo-rium chinense Santschi, Solenopsis japonica Wheeler, Tetramorium bicarinatwn (Nylander) and Technomyrmex albipes (F. Smith) were most frequently encountered. Excepting Pheidole noda they are open-land and/or forest-edge inhabitants. Furthermore, Tetramorium bica-rinatum and Technomyrmex albipes are tramp species. Thus, ant fauna there strongly reflects environmental conditions derived from urbanization/industrialization. Based on the present results, we propose here a new protocol monitoring ants in urban/industrial zones consisting of baiting and time unit sampling.