Abstract: There is an urgent need for coffee planters in Yunnan Province, China to create greenly organic coffee plantations which could balance the ecological and the economic benefits. This study explored the effect of coffee cultivation pattern on ant biodiversity by measuring diversity in different coffee plantations. Using pitfall traps, the ants in pure coffee plantations (K), Dalbergia obtusifolia-coffee mixed forests (DK), Dalbergia obtusifolia-corn mixed forests (DY) and rubber-coffee mixed forests (XK) were sampled twice in September 2015 and August 2016. Ant diversity, structural similarity and indicator species in the four habitats were calculated. There were significant differences in species richness, abundance and ACE(abundance-base coverage estimator)among the four types of habitats. The ant abundance was highest in DK, followed by K, DY and XK; while species richness and ACE were highest in DK, followed by DY, K and XK (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in species richness, abundance and ACE for canopy-foraging ants in the 4 sites (P>0.05). Nevertheless, the significant difference in community structure was detected for ground-foraging ants and canopy-foraging ants in the 4 sites. Moreover, for each site, one indicator species was detected, with Lepisiota capensis in K habitats, Tetramorium ciliatum in DK habitats, Tetramorium wroughtonii in DY habitats and Crematogaster ferrarii in XK habitats. In conclusion, pure coffee plantations significantly negatively affected ant diversity, while coffee agroforestry was higher with ant diversity than coffee monoculture. Moreover, coffee agroforestry with native trees as shade trees contributed to the conservation of ants.

Key words: coffee, cultivation pattern, agroforestry, ant diversity, community structure, indicator species