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Successive replacement of tending ant species at aggregations of scale insects (Hemiptera: Margarodidae and Eriococcidae) on Eucalyptus in south‐east Queensland

Rod Eastwood

Corresponding Author

Australian School of Environmental Studies, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia.

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First published: 26 March 2004
Cited by: 4

Present address: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA.

Abstract

Abstract  Scale insects generally display enhanced survival rates in the presence of tending ants, but studies of ant and scale–insect interactions typically examine a single tending ant species. This study investigated the successive changes in tending ant species during the lifespan of two species of scale aggregations, a monophlebuline margarodid and an Eriococcus sp. (Eriococcidae) on the Plunkett mallee, Eucalyptus curtisii. Scale aggregations were also subject to an ant‐exclusion experiment to quantify the degree to which ants increased the survival rates of both scale insect species. Tending ants assorted to two categories, dominant and secondary, with a significant bias according to the chronological age of the scale aggregation. Secondary ant species (opportunists and subordinates) tended juvenile‐scale aggregations. These were replaced by a dominant species of Iridomyrmex (Dolichoderinae), which almost exclusively tended larger (mature) aggregations until the senescent stages of the infestation when secondary ant species returned. Exclusion of the primary tending Iridomyrmex ant increased mortality of both species of scale insects by 96% relative to controls.

Number of times cited: 4

  • , Multiple Ant Species Tending Lac Insect Kerria yunnanensis (Hemiptera: Kerriidae) Provide Asymmetric Protection against Parasitoids, PLoS ONE, 9, 6, (e98975), (2014).
  • , Increases in crop pests caused by Wasmannia auropunctata in Solomon Islands subsistence gardens, Journal of Applied Entomology, 137, 8, (580-588), (2013).
  • , Influence of native ants on arthropod communities in a vineyard, Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 12, 3, (223-232), (2010).
  • , Invasive ants in Australia: documented and potential ecological consequences, Australian Journal of Entomology, 47, 4, (275-288), (2008).