Kenne M, Djiéto-Lordon C, Orivel J, Mony R, Fabre A, Dejean A
Department of Animal Biology and Physiology, Douala University, PO Box 24157 Douala, Cameroon.
J Econ Entomol. 2003 Apr;96(2):251-8. doi: 10.1603/0022-0493-96.2.251.
In this survey conducted in southern Cameroon, we compared ant-Hemiptera associations on plantations treated with insecticides, on plantations 2 years after insecticide treatments ceased, and on control lots that never received insecticide treatments. By eliminating arboreal-nesting ants, insecticides favored the presence of "ecologically dominant" ground-nesting, arboreal-foraging species that occupied the tree crowns. The reinstallation of arboreal ants was slow as 2 yr after insecticide treatment ceased differences with the control lots were significant. This intermediary period also illustrated that arboreal ants can found and develop colonies on trees occupied by ground-nesting species. Certain arboreal species were more frequent during this intermediary period than on the control lots, showing that the period of installation in the trees was followed by competition between arboreal ants. We confirm that ground-nesting ants tend a wide range of hemipteran families, including well known agricultural pests, whereas arboreal ants, particularly dominant species, were mostly associated with Coccidae and Stictococcidae that do not pose problems to the supporting trees. A tree effect was also noted for both ant and hemipteran distribution. We concluded that because of insecticide use, ground-nesting ants pose problems through their associated Hemiptera. On the contrary, dominant arboreal ants, strong predators, benefit their supporting trees by excluding ground-nesting species and tending mostly nonpest Hemiptera. Nevertheless, certain of them, carpenter species or species likely to tend Pseudococcidae, have to be eliminated through integrated management.
在喀麦隆南部进行的这项调查中，我们比较了在使用杀虫剂处理过的种植园、停止使用杀虫剂处理两年后的种植园以及从未接受过杀虫剂处理的对照地块上蚂蚁与半翅目昆虫的关联。通过消灭树栖筑巢蚂蚁，杀虫剂有利于“生态优势”的地栖、树栖觅食物种的存在，这些物种占据了树冠。树栖蚂蚁的重新出现很缓慢，因为在停止使用杀虫剂两年后，与对照地块仍存在显著差异。这个中间阶段还表明，树栖蚂蚁可以在被地栖物种占据的树上建立并发展蚁群。某些树栖物种在这个中间阶段比在对照地块上更为常见，这表明在树上定居之后，树栖蚂蚁之间存在竞争。我们证实，地栖蚂蚁照料着广泛的半翅目昆虫家族，包括一些著名的农业害虫，而树栖蚂蚁，尤其是优势物种，大多与对寄主树没有危害的蚧科和坚蚧科昆虫有关。在蚂蚁和半翅目昆虫的分布上也发现了树的影响。我们得出结论，由于使用了杀虫剂，地栖蚂蚁通过其相关的半翅目昆虫带来了问题。相反，占主导地位的树栖蚂蚁是强大的捕食者，它们通过排除地栖物种并主要照料非害虫半翅目昆虫，从而对寄主树有益。然而，其中某些木匠蚁物种或可能照料粉蚧科昆虫的物种，必须通过综合管理予以清除。
