Abstract / Introduction / Summary:
In total, 57 ant species belonging to 27 genera in 6 subfamilies were collected from 5 habitat types (port, residential area, forest, forest edge, grassland) on 7 islands of the Tokara Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan. This figure corresponds to around 40% of the 145 ant species recorded in the prefecture. The largest number (45 species) was recorded from Nakano-shima, and the smallest (15) from Kodakara-jima. Of the 57 species 15 are newly recorded from this island group. Monomorium chinense and Nylanderia amia were collected in all of the 7 islands surveyed. Around ports the most dominant ant species measured by the frequency of occurrence at honey baits were M. chinense on Kuchino-shima, Nakano-shima, Suwanose-jima, Akuseki-jima and Takara-jima, Tetramorium tsushimae on Taira-jima (0.46–0.70), and Pheidole indica (0.97) on Kodakara-jima. On the other hand, in forests the most dominant species measured by the frequency of occurrence at powdered-cheese baits were Nylanderia flavipes and Aphaenogaster tokarainsula (0.53) on Kuchino-shima, N. flavipes and Pachycondyla nakasujii (0.63) on Nakano-shima, Pheidole noda (0.80) on Taira-jima and Suwanose- jima, and P. pieli (0.97) on Akuseki-jima. Similarity in species composition as measured by Nomura-Simpson’s Coefficients was greatest between Akueseki-jima and each of Kodakara-jima and Takara- jima (0.80), and between Kodakara-jima and Takara- jima (0.80), and was smallest between Nakano-shima and Taira-jima (0.40). Around ports, of the 22 species 17 were collected using honey baits and 21 by manual collecting. Five ant species were not collected with honey baits. On the other hand, in forests, of the 33 species 19 were collected using powdered cheese baits, and 19 by manual collecting, 17 by litter sifting and 23 by soil sifting.
