Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) associated with rabbit carcasses in different ecological habitats in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study reported the ant species that were recovered from rabbit carcasses in three different ecological habitats (agricultural, desert, and urban) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the period from 11 to 22 May 2014. Rabbit carcass was used as a model for human decomposition in this study. Carcasses were categorized according to the exposure state into four types, open, clothed, shaded and burnt. A total of 3 replicates were used in each of the study sites. Ants were observed to prey on the immature stages and newly emerged flies. This study found that ant species could be found at all stages of decomposition, indicating that ants were not a significant indicator for faunal succession. A total of 619 ants, belonging to 3 subfamilies and 10 species were collected during the entire decomposition process in the three different ecological habitats. Lepisiota frauenfeldi (Mayr, 1855) (subfamily: Formicinae) and Trichomyrmex mayri (Forel, 1902) (subfamily: Myrmicinae) were only found on carcasses placed in the urban and desert habitats, respectively. In agricultural habitat were recorded, one species Brachyponera sennaarensis (Mayr, 1862) (subfamily: Ponerinae), five formicine species, Camponotus aegyptiacus Emery, 1915, C. maculatus (Fabricius, 1782), C. sericeus (Fabricius, 1798), C. xerxes Forel, 1904, Cataglyphis semitonsa Santschi, 1929 and myrmicine species,, Pheidole sp., Trichomyrmex mayri and Tetramorium lanuginosum Mayr, 1870.  Agricultural habitat had the highest value of species abundance, in contrast the urban habitat had the lowest value. Trichomyrmex mayri was the most abundant species, it was found in agricultural and desert habitats. Bloat stage of decomposition had the highest values of species abundance following by decay, fresh and dry stages, respectively. Clothes carcasses had the highest abundance values following by open carcasses, while shaded and burnt carcasses had the lowest values. These data suggests that specific ant species can act as geographic indicators for different ecological habitats of forensic entomology cases in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.