Afr J Ecol. 2020;00:1–19. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aje | 1 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Received: 11 February 2019 | Revised: 16 June 2020 | Accepted: 13 July 2020 DOI: 10.1111/aje.12775 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Influence of season on leaf litter ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) diversity in the locality of Minko'o (Southern, Cameroon) Gertrude-Loveline Tchoudjin 1 | Tadu Zephirin 1 | Judicael Fomekong-Lontchi 1 | Stephanie Kakam 1 | Syntiche Roselle Aymélé-Choungmo 1 | Patrick Kenfack-Fogang 1,2 | Jacques Anselme Massussi 2 | Augustine S. Niba 3 | Champlain Djiéto-Lordon 1 1 Laboratory of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon 2 Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Nkolbisson Regional Research Centre, Yaoundé, Cameroon 3 Department of Biological & Environmental Science, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa Correspondence Champlain Djiéto-Lordon, Laboratory of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Email: champlain_djieto@yahoo.ca Abstract Seasonality is known to influence ant activity in many tropical rain forests in the world such as South America and Africa. We surveyed ant fauna in the leaf litter in the locality of Minko'o. The work aimed to evaluate the effect of seasonal variation on the diversity and composition of litter ants. Ants were sampled from November 2015 to June 2017, using four sampling methods: visual capture, bait, pitfall trap and extraction. Species richness, Shannon diversity index and analysis of similarities were used to characterise diversity of ant communities between seasons. We collected 306 ant species, shared out between 56 genera and 11 subfamilies. Subfamilies Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae, Formicinae, Dorylinae, Cerapachyinae and Pseudomyrmecinae occurred in all the seasons. Species richness was highest in major dry season with 243 species followed by minor rainy season with 188, major rainy sea- son with 177 species and finally minor dry season that recorded the lowest with 155 species. Kruskal–Wallis test showed that ant species richness did not differ between seasons ( p > 0.05). Species diversity index indicated that diversity was the highest during minor dry season (H′ = 4.24), followed by the major dry season (H′ = 4.23), minor rainy season (H′ = 4.21) and lowest during major rainy season (H′ = 4.06). Eight most frequents ants have been recorded: Axinidris sp.1, Camponotus flavomar- ginatus, Monomorium guineense, Myrmicaria opaciventris, Odontomachus troglodytes, Carebara perpusilla, Paltothyreus tarsatus and Pheidole megacephala. Assessment of the seasonal effect on diversity reveals that dry season is richer and more diverse than rainy season and the season significantly influence the diversity of litter ants. Résumé La saisonnalité est connue comme étant un facteur qui influence l'activité des four- mis dans de nombreuses forêts tropicales humides du monde à l'instar de l’Amérique du sud et l’Afrique. Nous avons étudié la faune des fourmis terricoles dans la lo- calité de Minko'o. Les travaux visaient à évaluer l'effet des variations saisonnières