南北台灣環境變異對屍食性螞蟻（Hymenoptera: Formicidae）群聚組成與屍體利用之影響
摘要
The goal of this study is to understand how environmental variables between southern and northern Taiwan influenced the contribution of ants to the carcass decomposition, as well the season activity, community composition and habitat preference of ants. We used the number of pseudo-individuals of each ant species attracted by the traps to evaluate season activity, community composition and habitat preference. Our results showed that the most mouse carcasses in subtropical Fushan, northern Taiwan, were utilized by vertebrates, while most of mouse carcasses in tropical Nanrenshan, southern Taiwan, were decomposed by maggots and ants. Using mouse carcass baited pitfall traps, we collected a total of 39 species of ants in both Fushan and Nanrenshan, and 8 species can be found in both sites. The diversity and evenness of ants were higher in Nanrenshan than in Fushan. The community similarity of ants between in Fushan and in Nanrenshan was only 7.72% (Wainstein's Similarity Index, Kw). The activity of ants and environment temperature were significantly correlated. In Fushan, the most active period of ants was in summer, while the most inactive period in winter. However, the inactive period of ants in Nanrenshan was only in winter. Ants prefer to active on the meadow than in the forest in Fushan, while there is no difference in habitat preference between the forest and the meadow in Nanrenshan. This indicates that ant species emerged in both Fushan and Nanrenshan shifted their habitat preference.