首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
     检索      


The hunter becomes the hunted: when cleptobiotic insects are captured by their target ants
Authors:Email author" target="_blank">Alain?DejeanEmail author  James?M?Carpenter  Bruno?Corbara  Pamela?Wright  Olivier?Roux  Louis?M?LaPierre
Institution:1.écologie des Forêts de Guyane (UMR-CNRS 8172),CNRS,Kourou cedex,France;2.Université de Toulouse (UPS), Ecolab,Toulouse,France;3.Division of Invertebrate Zoology,American Museum of Natural History,New York,USA;4.Laboratoire Microorganismes, Génome et Environnement,CNRS (UMR-CNRS 6023) Université Blaise Pascal,Aubière cedex,France;5.Clermont Université–Université Blaise Pascal, LMGE,Clermont-Ferrand,France;6.Longview,USA;7.Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contr?le (UMR-IRD 224), équipe BEES-IRD,IRD,Bobo-Dioulasso,Burkina Faso;8.Department of Biology,Lower Columbia College,Longview,USA
Abstract:Here we show that trying to rob prey (cleptobiosis) from a highly specialized predatory ant species is risky. To capture prey, Allomerus decemarticulatus workers build gallery-shaped traps on the stems of their associated myrmecophyte, Hirtella physophora. We wondered whether the frequent presence of immobilized prey on the trap attracted flying cleptoparasites. Nine social wasp species nest in the H. physophora foliage; of the six species studied, only Angiopolybia pallens rob prey from Allomerus colonies. For those H. physophora not sheltering wasps, we noted cleptobiosis by stingless bees (Trigona), social wasps (A. pallens and five Agelaia species), assassin bugs (Reduviidae), and flies. A relationship between the size of the robbers and their rate of capture by ambushing Allomerus workers was established for social wasps; small wasps were easily captured, while the largest never were. Reduviids, which are slow to extract their rostrum from prey, were always captured, while Trigona and flies often escaped. The balance sheet for the ants was positive vis-à-vis the reduviids and four out of the six social wasp species. For the latter, wasps began by cutting up parts of the prey’s abdomen and were captured (or abandoned the prey) before the entire abdomen was retrieved so that the total weight of the captured wasps exceeded that of the prey abdomens. For A. pallens, we show that the number of individuals captured during attempts at cleptobiosis increases with the size of the Allomerus’ prey.
Keywords:
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号