## 5 Conclusions  
In summary, this study highlights the importance of conducting holistic biodiversity surveys in cities to discover new records as well as potential new species for science, and to monitor the introduction of new exotic species. Our results suggest that forest patches in cities can harbor a diverse ant fauna and may have a significant conservation value. However, exhaustive ant diversity surveys in cities are rare, and are often based on incomplete sampling approaches. Thus, until the completion of several more surveys in cities around the world, particularly within tropical regions, a clear understanding of how urban environments may act as biodiversity refuges and gateways for exotic species will be lacking. As such, we advocate that conservation management practices should implement regular biodiversity surveys using an exhaustive sampling approach in urban regions worldwide. Whenever possible, we also recommend that urban biodiversity assessments be combined with surveys done in less urbanized habitats nearby to compare the diversity and composition of each habitat. The following are available online at [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/d13080358/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/d13080358/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/d13080358/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/d13080358/s1)). Figure S1: Map of Coloane showing the 21 sites sampled in the 2019 survey. White dots mark sites where the full protocol was done (i.e., standardized and species pool leaf litter extractions, ground baiting, ground nests, subterranean traps, and arboreal traps), whereas grey dots mark preliminary sites where only ground baiting and leaf litter extractions were done. Handcollection was also opportunistically used at each site. Figure S2: Design of a 20 \(\times\) 20 m sampling plot. Each of the 1 \(\times\) 1 m quadrats where subterranean traps and leaf litter extraction (standardized area) was performed were placed at a corner of the plot. Black dots show the emplacement of nest bundles. For the species pool leaf litter extraction, 12 microhabitats were sampled within the light gray area. For the arboreal baiting protocol, four trees measuring a minimum of 5 m height were sampled within the grey area. Table S1: List of the localities of each sampling sites, their associated number, and their geolocation. The date refers to the first sampling event made at a site, which corresponded to the leaf litter extraction and placement of subterranean traps. Sampling protocols are defined as follows: the letter (P) signifies a partial sampling protocol (i.e., leaf litter extraction, ground baiting, and hand collection), whereas the letter (F) signifies a full protocol (i.e., leaf litter extraction, ground baiting, ground nests, subterranean traps, arboreal traps, and hand collection). Table S2: Sociometry data collected using ground nests. Macao species: material examined. Conceptualization, F.B. and B.G. ; methodology, F.B. and B.G. ; validation, F.B. and B.G. ; formal analysis, F.B. ; investigation, F.B. ; resources, B.G., H.-H.C., and C.-M.L. ; data curation, F.B. and B.G. ; writing--original draft preparation, F.B. ; writing--review and editing, F.B., B.G., C.-M.L., and H.-H.C.; visualization, F.B. ; supervision, B.G. ; project administration, B.G. ; funding acquisition, B.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. We must supported by the Instituto para os Assuntos Municipais, Macao SAR, China, CML was supported by the Macao Foundation and the Direcciao dos Servicos do Ensino Superior, Macao SAR, China, and CML and FB were supported by The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to our work being conducted on invertebrates. The data presented in this study are available in tables within the main text and within the supplementary material section. We thank [PERSON] and [PERSON] for their help with the identification of species within the genera _Nylanderia_ and _Carebara_, respectively.