Thomas J
NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Dorset), Winfrith Technology Centre, Dorset, DT2 8ZD, UK.
Oecologia. 2002 Aug;132(4):531-537. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-1002-9. Epub 2002 Aug 1.
Larvae of the butterfly genus Maculinea feed briefly on a foodplant before being adopted as social parasites into Myrmica ant nests. Each Maculinea species typically survives only with a single Myrmica species, yet the eggs are laid across the overlapping territories of 3-5 Myrmica species and several other ants. The ability of Maculinea arion - a 'predatory' species of Maculinea - to influence its adoption into host Myrmica colonies was studied for the first time in the field. Some earlier reports, involving captive non-host ants, suggested that larvae of the predatory Maculinea follow ant trails into host nests or wander some distance from their foodplant before being discovered and (after a long interaction) carried away by Myrmica foragers. No dispersal from foodplants occurred in wild Maculinea arion larvae. Instead, they increased by >100-fold their probability of being discovered and adopted by Myrmica spp., rather than by ants of other genera, by exposing themselves in the micro-niche occupied by Myrmica foragers at their time of day of peak foraging. Despite a complex, hour-long interaction with Myrmica workers before being carried to the nest, Maculinea arion did not enhance its adoption by host species of Myrmica. Eggs were laid without bias in Myrmica sabuleti (host) and Myrmica scabrinodis (non-host) territories; larval survival on Thymus was the same in both ants' territories; larvae waited to be found beneath their foodplant rather than seek their host; Myrmica sabuleti and Myrmica scabrinodis foraged in the same vertical and temporal niches, and had the same probability of discovering larvae; both ants behaved identically after finding larvae and took the same time to adopt them; and the ratio of wild larvae taken into Myrmica sabuleti or Myrmica scabrinodis nests was the same as the distribution between these ants of Thymus, eggs and pre-adoption larvae.
黄斑蝶属的幼虫在被接纳为社会寄生虫进入蚁巢之前，会在一种食草植物上短暂进食。每一种黄斑蝶通常仅能在单一的蚁种蚁巢中存活，然而其卵却产在3 - 5种蚁和其他几种蚂蚁的重叠领地内。黄斑弄蝶——黄斑蝶属的一种“捕食性”物种——影响其被接纳进入寄主蚁群的能力首次在野外得到研究。一些早期涉及圈养非寄主蚂蚁的报告表明，捕食性黄斑蝶的幼虫会沿着蚁道进入寄主蚁巢，或者在离开食草植物一段距离后才被蚁属觅食者发现，并（经过长时间互动后）带走。野生黄斑弄蝶幼虫不会从食草植物上扩散。相反，它们通过在蚁属觅食者一天中觅食高峰期所占据的微生境中暴露自己来增加被蚁属物种而非其他属蚂蚁发现并接纳的概率，这一概率增加了100多倍。尽管在被带到蚁巢之前，黄斑弄蝶与蚁属工蚁有长达一小时的复杂互动，但黄斑弄蝶并未提高蚁属寄主物种对它的接纳率。卵在沙地蚁（寄主）和粗糙蚁（非寄主）领地内无偏向地产下；百里香上的幼虫在两种蚂蚁领地内的存活率相同；幼虫在食草植物下等待被发现，而非主动寻找寄主；沙地蚁和粗糙蚁在相同的垂直和时间生态位觅食，发现幼虫得概率相同；两种蚂蚁发现幼虫后的行为相同，接纳幼虫所需时间也相同；进入沙地蚁或粗糙蚁蚁巢的野生幼虫比例与百里香、卵和接纳前幼虫在这些蚂蚁间的分布比例相同。
