Hill M G, Blackmore P J M
Royal Society Aldabra Research Station, Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles.
Oecologia. 1980 Jan;45(3):360-365. doi: 10.1007/BF00540206.
Infestations of the phloem feeding coccid Icerya seychellarum on the natural vegetation of Aldabra atoll are attended at night by large numbers of the large ant Componotus maculatus and, during the day, by small numbers of other ant species.Large ant species preferentially tended larger coccids. The efficiency of C. maculatus worker spacing among the patchily distributed Icerya resource on a plant, was dependent upon the overall ant/Icerya biomass ratio. At high ratios (i.e. low resource availability per ant) they were more evenly dispersed.Size of honeydew loads carried by C. maculatus workers declined as the night progressed, although ant numbers remained constant. From this, and the observations of more even dispersion at higher ant/Icerya biomass ratios, it is concluded that the ants are probably stimulating the coccids to produce more honeydew.The results of an ant exlusion experiment were inconclusive, but suggested that I. seychellarum can exist at reasonably high densities in the absence of ants and that numbers of Chilocorus nigritus, a diaspid scale predator, are reduced by ants.The implication of these results for the biological control of I. seychellarum on Aldabra are discussed, together with the processes involved in honeydew collection in a patchily distributed Icerya population.
在阿尔达布拉环礁的自然植被上，取食韧皮部的塞舌尔粉蚧（Icerya seychellarum）受到大量大型蚂蚁——黄斑弓背蚁（Componotus maculatus）的夜间照料，白天则有少量其他蚂蚁物种照料。大型蚂蚁物种更倾向于照料体型较大的粉蚧。黄斑弓背蚁工蚁在植物上分布零散的粉蚧资源间的分布效率，取决于蚂蚁与粉蚧的总体生物量比。在高比例时（即每只蚂蚁的资源可用性低），它们分布得更为均匀。随着夜晚推进，黄斑弓背蚁工蚁携带的蜜露量减少，尽管蚂蚁数量保持不变。据此，以及在蚂蚁与粉蚧生物量比更高时分布更均匀的观察结果，可以得出结论：蚂蚁可能刺激粉蚧产生更多蜜露。一项蚂蚁排除实验的结果尚无定论，但表明在没有蚂蚁的情况下，塞舌尔粉蚧仍能以相当高的密度存在，并且一种盾蚧捕食者——黑红点唇瓢虫（Chilocorus nigritus）的数量会因蚂蚁而减少。本文讨论了这些结果对阿尔达布拉环礁上塞舌尔粉蚧生物防治的意义，以及在分布零散的粉蚧种群中收集蜜露所涉及的过程。
