Abstract:Refuse piles of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invcta Buren, were collected from four typical habitats in South China: litchi orchard, nursery, wasteland and roadside, and analyzed to learn seasonal food content fluctuation of this ant. The result showed that the refuse piles had a wide variety of solid particles including 41 species of insect fragments and seeds from 8 orders in total. Coleopterans were the dominant components in all of the habitats accounting 69.05%, 417%, 51.8% and 66.67% in litchi orchard, nursery, wasteland and roadside respectively. Homoptera was the least common preys which was only found in the wasteland composing 1.20%. The Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, seeds, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Isoptera and Odonata preys comprised 14.92, 11.96, 11.66, 2.08, 0.60, 0.60 and 0.60%, respectively. Adult fragments were the main parts in refuse piles with few insect larval or pupal fragments found. The numbers of prey species discovered in refuse piles were similar among habitats, but the composition of the species and their quantity were different. It showed obvious seasonal fluctuations of the forage items with two foraging active periods occurring from April to May and from September to October.