Floren Andreas, Biun Alim, Linsenmair Eduard K
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, University Wuerzburg, 97074, Wuerzburg, Germany.
Sabah Parks, Peti Surat 10626, 88806, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Oecologia. 2002 Mar;131(1):137-144. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-0874-z. Epub 2002 Mar 1.
Ants numerically dominate the canopy fauna of tropical lowland rain forests. They are considered to be key predators but their effects in this regard have only rarely been studied on non-myrmecophytes. A conspicuously low abundance of less mobile, mainly holometabolous arthropods like Lepidoptera larvae corresponds with ant dominance, while hemimetabolous highly mobile nymphs occur regularly and in large numbers in the trees. This is in contrast to the temperate regions where ants are mostly lacking on trees and holometabolous larvae are frequent. In this study we experimentally measured ant predation in the trees by offering caterpillars as baits. Fifty-four ant species were tested, of which 46 killed caterpillars and carried them away to their nests while only eight species ignored the offered larvae. Insecticidal knockdown fogging of ten trees after finishing the prey experiments showed that on average 85% of ant individuals per tree were predacious. With the analysis of another 69 foggings and meticulous observations in many other trees this suggests that arboreal ants are responsible for the low abundance of less mobile arthropods in tropical lowland rain forest canopies. Ant predation was significantly lower in a disturbed forest indicating that human disturbance induces a change in the functional interactions in these ecosystems.
蚂蚁在数量上主导着热带低地雨林的树冠层动物群落。它们被认为是关键捕食者，但在这方面对非蚁栖植物的影响却鲜有研究。像鳞翅目幼虫这样行动相对迟缓、主要为全变态的节肢动物数量明显较少，这与蚂蚁的主导地位相符，而半变态且行动敏捷的若虫则经常大量出现在树上。这与温带地区形成对比，在温带地区，树上大多没有蚂蚁，全变态幼虫却很常见。在本研究中，我们通过提供毛虫作为诱饵，对树上蚂蚁的捕食情况进行了实验测量。测试了54种蚂蚁，其中46种杀死毛虫并将其带回巢穴，只有8种对提供的幼虫不予理会。在完成猎物实验后，对10棵树进行杀虫击倒喷雾显示，每棵树上平均85%的蚂蚁个体具有捕食性。通过对另外69次喷雾的分析以及在许多其他树上的细致观察表明，树栖蚂蚁是热带低地雨林树冠层中行动相对迟缓的节肢动物数量稀少的原因。在一片受干扰的森林中，蚂蚁的捕食明显减少，这表明人类干扰导致了这些生态系统中功能相互作用的变化。
