Am J Bot. 1998 Jun;85(6):835.
Cashew nut trees are consistently ant-visited throughout the year, with the ants attracted to a large number of extrafloral nectaries on the leaves, inflorescences, flowers, and developing nuts. The commercial production of cashew nut, for example, in India, Brazil, and east Africa, consistently applies pesticides, especially insecticides, in large monoculture plantings. Each year prophylactic spraying begins with the first flush of new leaves, continues through flowering, ending at about mid-nut development. We surveyed for ant diversity in sprayed and unsprayed cashew monocultures of various sizes and ages in Sri Lanka, India, and Malaysia to document the ant-cashew relationship and to explore the potential of ants replacing chemical pesticides in insect control. Using for-profit, commercial-size plantations as examples, we present information that cashew has a strong potential for arthropod-dependent protection from pests and suggest important habitat considerations for encouraging ants within cashew plantings.
腰果坚果树在一年中始终受到蚂蚁的访问，蚂蚁被叶子、花序、花朵和发育中的坚果上大量的额外花蜜所吸引。例如，在印度、巴西和东非，商业上大规模种植腰果时，都会持续使用杀虫剂，尤其是杀虫剂。每年预防性喷洒从新叶的第一次抽穗开始，持续到开花，大约在坚果发育中期结束。我们在斯里兰卡、印度和马来西亚对不同大小和年龄的喷洒和未喷洒的腰果单一栽培进行了蚂蚁多样性调查，以记录蚂蚁与腰果的关系，并探索蚂蚁在昆虫控制中取代化学农药的潜力。我们以营利性、商业规模的种植园为例，提供了腰果在防治病虫害方面具有很强的节肢动物依赖保护潜力的信息，并提出了在腰果种植园中鼓励蚂蚁的重要生境考虑因素。
