Ant–scale mutualism increases scale infestation, decreases folivory, and disrupts biological control in restored tropical forests
Ant–scale mutualism increases scale infestation, decreases folivory, and disrupts biological control in restored tropical forests
复制标题
蚁鳞互利共生增加了鳞片侵扰，减少了叶的数量，并破坏了恢复的热带森林的生物控制
作者：
Andy J. Kulikowski
Ant–hemipteran mutualisms can have positive and negative effects on host plants depending on the level of hemipteran infestation and plant protection conferred by ants against folivory. Differential effects of such mutualisms on plant survival are well documented in undisturbed and ant‐invaded systems, but few have explored how anthropogenic disturbance affects interactions between hemipterans and native ant species and what the consequences may be for recovering ecosystems. Within a fragmented landscape in Costa Rica, restored tropical forests harbor a mutualism between the native ant Wasmannia auropunctata and the scale insect Alecanochiton marquesi on the abundant, early‐successional tree Conostegia xalapensis. I added A. marquesi scales to C. xalapensis seedlings and either allowed or excluded W. auropunctata to investigate if this mutualism leads to increased scale infestation, decreased scale mortality, and decreased folivory. I also examined whether these effects are mediated by the percentage of remnant forest cover in the landscape. I found that seedlings with ants excluded had fewer scale insects and higher herbivory than plants with ants present. I also found evidence that scale mortality due to fungal attack and parasitism was higher on ant‐excluded versus ant‐allowed seedlings but only at sites with high surrounding landscape forest cover. Together, these results suggest that mutualisms between scale insects and native ants can promote scale infestation, reduce folivory on native plant species, and potentially disrupt biological control of scale insects in recovering tropical forests. Further, my experiment underscores the importance of remnant tropical forests as sources of biological control in anthropogenically disturbed landscapes.
影响因子：
3.7
作者：
Zahawi RA;Duran G;Kormann U
通讯作者：
Kormann U