Twigs in leaf litter represent an important nesting resource for ant colonies. Twig diameter strongly influences the occupation of twigs by ants, possibly determining the size of colonies. Given that uncolonized twigs are common in leaf litter, we tested the hypothesis that ant species occupy twigs with a similar size (i.e., resource use overlap). In addition, we expected that colony size at assemblage and species levels were related to twig diameter because twig size may hinder nest occupation. We analyzed all twigs present in 112 4 × 4 m plots, summing 1792 m² of leaf litter in 16 Atlantic Forest sites. We separated the twigs occupied by ants, counted the number of individuals, and measured twig diameter. We recorded 701 twigs occupied by 28 ant species. At the species level, we detected four twig size classes, with preference for twigs between 11.5 and 16.1 mm in diameter. Assemblage-wide, we found a significant relation between colony size and twig size. In addition, many ant species did not show a relationship between colony size and twig size, suggesting that ant species drive the general relationship by selecting different twig size classes.

凋落物中的树枝代表了蚁群重要的筑巢资源。树枝直径会极大地影响蚂蚁对树枝的占领，可能会决定菌落的大小。鉴于未定殖的树枝在叶子凋落物中很常见，我们检验了以下假设：蚂蚁物种占据的树枝具有相似的大小（即资源使用重叠）。此外，我们预计菌落大小和物种水平与小枝直径有关，因为小枝大小可能会阻碍巢的占领。我们分析了112 4×4 m地块中存在的所有树枝，总计1792 m ²16个大西洋森林站点的叶子凋落物的数量。我们分离了被蚂蚁占据的树枝，计算了个体数量，并测量了树枝直径。我们记录了701条被28种蚂蚁占据的树枝。在物种水平上，我们检测到四种大小的树枝，优选直径在11.5到16.1毫米之间的树枝。在整个组装过程中，我们发现菌落大小和树枝大小之间存在显着的关系。此外，许多蚂蚁物种并未显示出菌落大小与嫩枝大小之间的关系，这表明蚂蚁物种通过选择不同的嫩枝大小类别来驱动总体关系。