Dejean Alain, Carpenter James M, Corbara Bruno, Wright Pamela, Roux Olivier, Lapierre Louis M
Écologie des Forêts de Guyane (UMR-CNRS 8172), CNRS, Campus Agronomique, Kourou cedex, France.
Naturwissenschaften. 2012 Apr;99(4):265-73. doi: 10.1007/s00114-012-0895-3. Epub 2012 Feb 24.
Here we show that trying to rob prey (cleptobiosis) from a highly specialized predatory ant species is risky. To capture prey, Allomerus decemarticulatus workers build gallery-shaped traps on the stems of their associated myrmecophyte, Hirtella physophora. We wondered whether the frequent presence of immobilized prey on the trap attracted flying cleptoparasites. Nine social wasp species nest in the H. physophora foliage; of the six species studied, only Angiopolybia pallens rob prey from Allomerus colonies. For those H. physophora not sheltering wasps, we noted cleptobiosis by stingless bees (Trigona), social wasps (A. pallens and five Agelaia species), assassin bugs (Reduviidae), and flies. A relationship between the size of the robbers and their rate of capture by ambushing Allomerus workers was established for social wasps; small wasps were easily captured, while the largest never were. Reduviids, which are slow to extract their rostrum from prey, were always captured, while Trigona and flies often escaped. The balance sheet for the ants was positive vis-à-vis the reduviids and four out of the six social wasp species. For the latter, wasps began by cutting up parts of the prey's abdomen and were captured (or abandoned the prey) before the entire abdomen was retrieved so that the total weight of the captured wasps exceeded that of the prey abdomens. For A. pallens, we show that the number of individuals captured during attempts at cleptobiosis increases with the size of the Allomerus' prey.
在此我们表明，试图从一种高度特化的捕食性蚂蚁物种那里抢夺猎物（盗窃寄生）是有风险的。为了捕获猎物，十节全异蚁的工蚁会在其共生蚁栖植物——垂花赫特木的茎干上建造廊状陷阱。我们想知道陷阱上频繁出现的静止不动的猎物是否会吸引飞行的盗窃寄生者。有九种社会性黄蜂在垂花赫特木的枝叶中筑巢；在所研究的六种黄蜂中，只有苍白角腹胡蜂会从全异蚁群落抢夺猎物。对于那些没有黄蜂栖息的垂花赫特木，我们注意到无刺蜂（三角蜂属）、社会性黄蜂（苍白角腹胡蜂和五种阿盖拉黄蜂属物种）、猎蝽（猎蝽科）和苍蝇存在盗窃寄生行为。对于社会性黄蜂，我们确定了抢劫者的体型与其被埋伏的全异蚁工蚁捕获的几率之间的关系；小型黄蜂很容易被捕获，而体型最大的黄蜂则从未被捕获过。将喙从猎物身上抽出速度较慢的猎蝽总是会被捕获，而三角蜂属和苍蝇则常常逃脱。对于蚂蚁来说，相对于猎蝽和六种社会性黄蜂中的四种，它们的收支状况呈正向。对于后者，黄蜂开始时会切割猎物腹部的部分，在整个腹部被夺回之前就被捕获（或放弃猎物），所以被捕获黄蜂的总重量超过了猎物腹部的重量。对于苍白角腹胡蜂，我们表明在盗窃寄生尝试过程中被捕获的个体数量会随着全异蚁猎物的体型增大而增加。
