ANT FAUNA OF ANNUAL AND PERENNIAL CROPS

Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are a diverse and abundant part of soil fauna with the ability to maintain and restore soil quality and to increase crop yields in agroecosystems.Some ant species are sensitive to land management, which makes them good bioindicators of soil function in land use management and conservation throughout the world.In Croatia, ants are understudied and they were never sampled on agricultural crops.In this study, we used pitfall traps to collect ants on three different land use types: annual crops, perennial crops, and semi-natural habitats.We found 12 ant species, out of which one species, Tetramorium atratulum (Schenck, 1852), is a new record for Croatia.We observed significantly lower ant abundance on annual crops than on both perennial crops and semi-natural habitats.Similarly, ant richness and diversity were lowest on annual crops, although this difference was not statistically significant.Our results contribute to the increasing evidence that intensive agricultural practices, particularly soil tillage, are detrimental to the arthropod diversity.The transition to sustainable agriculture will require utilizing the ecosystem services of naturally occurring insects, such as ants.