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Publicação
Antagonistic interactions between dominant invasive and native ant species in citrus orchards
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Autores
Resumo(s)
The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) established in the South of Portugal (Algarve), about 120 years ago. Zina et al. (2017) compared the composition of ant communities foraging in tree canopy in citrus orchards among the three ecological subregions of Algarve (Litoral, Barrocal and Serra) and observed that the invasive dominant species L. humile was absent from Serra. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that dominant native ant species, such as Tapinoma nigerrimum (Nylander) and Lasius grandis Forel could prevent the Argentine ant from invading Serra. Laboratory experiments were carried out, using both Petri dish arenas and cages to assess the antagonistic interactions between the Argentine ant and two dominant native species, at the individual and colony level, respectively. Overall, our results support the tested hypothesis. At the individual level, both T. nigerrimum and L. grandis showed higher aggression and survival levels than Argentine ant. At the colony level, the results suggest that both the Argentine ant and T. nigerrimum were able to recruit a relative large number of individuals from the colony when trying to colonise a food resource defended by the competitor species. In our experimental conditions, T. nigerrimum showed to be more efficient than Argentine ant in this type of competition, as it was able to defend a food resource in four out of five times from the attack of the former species, as well as to dominate a resource defended by Argentine ant in four out of five times
Descrição
Mestrado em Engenharia Agronómica - Proteção das plantas / Instituto Superior de Agronomia
Palavras-chave
competition invasive species Lasius grandis Linepithema humile Tapinoma nigerrimum
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Costa, S.C. - Antagonistic interactions between dominant invasive and native ant species in citrus orchards. Lisboa: ISA, 2017, 32 p.