Urban green spaces can have an important role in biodiversity conservation. However, they are not often a focus of biodiversity studies, although their global area is raising. We investigated the impact of habitat characteristics of urban green spaces on an ecologically important group of insects—ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). We tested three questions: 1) does ant species richness positively correlate with park size and the extent of wooded areas? 2) Is ground temperature the best predictor of ant activity? 3) Will communities be dominated by thermophilic, dry-tolerant, generalist species? Using pitfall traps, hand collecting, and baiting we sampled 7595 ants belonging to 30 species, across eight localities in urban protected areas of the city of Zagreb, Croatia. Parks with larger wooded areas had high species richness, but park size was not a good predictor of species richness. Ant activity was largely influenced by temperature. Five out of eight localities had similar ant community composition. The remaining three localities each had unique ant communities with no overlap with any other locality. Overall, in addition to typical urban species, we recorded species of conservation interest. Thus, small urban green spaces have the capacity to support and conserve diverse ant communities, but their habitat characteristics need to be considered in urban planning.

城市绿地在生物多样性保护中可以发挥重要作用。然而，尽管它们的全球范围正在扩大，但它们通常不是生物多样性研究的重点。我们调查了城市绿地的生境特征对一组重要的生态学昆虫-蚂蚁（膜翅目：昆虫科）的影响。我们测试了三个问题：1）蚂蚁物种的丰富度与公园的大小和林区的面积成正相关吗？2）地温是蚂蚁活动的最佳预测者吗？3）社区会被嗜热，耐旱，通才的物种所控制吗？我们使用陷阱陷阱，人工收集和诱饵对克罗地亚萨格勒布市城市保护区中的八个地区的7595种蚂蚁进行了采样，它们属于30种。林木面积较大的公园物种丰富度高，但是公园的大小并不能很好地预测物种的丰富程度。蚂蚁的活动很大程度上受温度的影响。八个地区中有五个地区的蚂蚁群落组成相似。其余三个地区均拥有独特的蚂蚁社区，且与其他任何地区都没有重叠。总体而言，除了典型的城市物种外，我们还记录了具有保护意义的物种。因此，小型的城市绿地有能力支持和养护各种蚂蚁群落，但在城市规划中需要考虑其栖息地特征。我们记录了具有保护意义的物种。因此，小型的城市绿地有能力支持和养护各种蚂蚁群落，但在城市规划中需要考虑其栖息地特征。我们记录了具有保护意义的物种。因此，小型的城市绿地有能力支持和养护各种蚂蚁群落，但在城市规划中需要考虑其栖息地特征。