Does the host plant affect the benefits from mutualisms?The invasive mealybug and ghost ant association

Abstract

1. The benefits to trophobionte hemipterans are affected by the ant tending level, which is a widely accepted statement. The ant tending level is closely related to multiple factors. It is clear that the ant tending level can be affected by the temporal factor, age-specific, the density of the hemipterans, and quantity and quality of honeydew produced by hemipterans.2. Few studies of ant-hemipteran mutualisms have reported the patterns of host plants-dependent effects, and whether host plants influence the ant tending level that is also unclear. As such, laboratory experiments were conducted to test whether the colony growth rate of an invasive mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, parasitism of Aenasius bambawalei Hayat, an dominant parasitoid of P. solenopsis, are affected by tending by ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum(Fabricius)], host plants (tomato and cotton), and interactions between the two factors. The difference in the ant tending level between the host plants was also determined.3. The results showed that mealybug colony growth and parasitism were significantly affected by ant tending and host plant separately. There were significant interactions between the independent factors on the mealybug colony growth rate and percentage parasitism. These results suggest that benefits to mealybugs are host plant-dependent.

Ant–hemipteran association decreases parasitism of Phenacoccus solenopsis by endoparasitoid Aenasius bambawalei

“…Herbivore‐induced plant volatiles proved very attractive to several larval parasitoids and arthropod predators (McCormick et al ., ; Cusumano et al ., ; Xu et al ., ). Our previous study also revealed that in comparison with healthy cotton plants, A. bambawalei had an obvious preference for plants infested by mealybugs (Zhou et al ., ). Some research has suggested that chemical cues play an important role in host location by natural enemies and these reported chemicals are mainly derived from host plants (Arimura et al ., ; Dicke & Baldwin, ; Ponzio et al ., ).…”

“…() and Zhou et al . (). Each treatment had 60 replications each with different group of parasitoids.…”

“…Honeydew sugar compositions are largely influenced by host plant status (Fischer & Shingleton, ). Our previous study showed that honeydew composition was stable when the quality of host plants was kept the same by growing them in the same conditions (Zhou et al ., ,c). To minimise the effect of host plant quality, cotton plants with the consistent traits of size, growth period, and fitness were selected for all honeydew collection.…”

“…Mutually beneficial interactions between ants and honeydew‐producing hemipterans have been well documented (Styrsky & Eubanks, ; Brightwell & Silverman, ; Powell & Silverman, ; Wilder et al ., ; Zhou et al ., ). Hemipterans benefit from ant tending as it can protect hemipterans from their natural enemies, which has been demonstrated in various ant–hemipteran mutualism systems (Kaplan & Eubanks, ; Daane et al ., ; Powell & Silverman, ; Zhou et al ., ).…”

“…Mutually beneficial interactions between ants and honeydew-producing hemipterans have been well documented (Styrsky & Eubanks, 2007;Brightwell & Silverman, 2010;Powell & Silverman, 2010;Wilder et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2015a). Hemipterans benefit from ant tending as it can protect hemipterans from their natural enemies, which has been demonstrated in various ant-hemipteran mutualism systems Correspondence: Aiming Zhou, Department of Hubei Insect Resources Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.…”