ASIAN
MYRMECOLOGY

DOI: 10.20362/am.009014
Asian Myrmecology 9: e009014 (1-20)
article first published online 17/October/2017

Ants in the city, a preliminary checklist of Formicidae (Hymenoptera) in Macau, one of the most heavily urbanized regions of the world

CHI-MAN LEONG¹, SHIUH-FENG SHIAO¹ & BENOIT GUÉNARD2^2*

Abstract:

Macau is a small territory in South East China and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Previous studies on insect groups have shown that a relatively diverse, yet specific, fauna could still survive in this region. However, to this point, studies on the myrmecofauna of Macau are scarce and to date no species checklist exists. Here, we present the first checklist of Macanese ant species by combining results from recent ant surveys using hand-collections and Winkler extractors with published records. During the surveys, 82 species and morphospecies belonging to 37 genera and 8 subfamilies have been collected, with 37 species representing new records for Macau, including an interesting new record of an undescribed Leptanilla species, the second record of the Leptanillinae subfamily for South East China. To date, Macanese ants comprise 105 species/morphospecies and 8 subspecies, after the removal of dubious records present in the literature (though some misidentifications may remain). While still likely incomplete, these results represent the most comprehensive list of ants for Macau, and a baseline for future research on ant diversity in heavily urbanized environments and for understanding the potential consequences of urbanization on native and non-native diversity in Asia.

Keywords:

Ants, Checklist, Exotic Species, Macao, Diversity Survey, Urban Ecosystems

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¹National Taiwan University, Department of Entomology, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan

²University of Hong Kong, School of Biological Sciences, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China

*Corresponding author: bguenard@hku.hk