Species diversity of ants in steppe and desert regions of Damghan

Ants have strong impacts on ecosystems especially in arid regions. However there is poor knowledge about ants of the steppes and deserts of Iran. In this study we provide a small scale study of ants’ communities of steppe and desert regions of Damghan. We collected 698 ants by pitfall traps at two sites, steppe and desert during spring 2006. In total we identified 23 species of ants from 12 genera of three subfamilies. We collected 14 species from steppe region and 12 species from desert region. Observed species diversity, estimated species diversity, alpha index and Shannon index of diversity was higher in steppe but Simpson index of diversity was higher in desert region than steppe region. As rainfall and productivity are higher in steppe region than desert region, they could be main reasons of high species diversity, alpha and Shannon indices in steppe region. Simpson index was higher in desert region because in desert there were more species with high abundance. Cataglyphis nodus was the most common species in steppe region and Monomorium kusenzovi was the most common species in desert region.