| The mutually beneficial relationship between aphids and ants has attracted widespread attention.The ant antennae is the most important and direct physical contact between the two partners,and aphid honeydew is the only material connection between them.However,it is not clear whether there are general patterns in the antennae stroking behavior of ants in a relationship with aphids.A common subtropical ant species,the Polyrhachis dives,and its common partners,the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii feeding on Melastoma candidum,the mango aphid Aphis odinae feeding on Rhus chinensis,and Aphis spiraecola feeding on the apple tree Malus pumila,were selected to analyzed the stroking behavior of ant antennae on these aphids.Based on the knowledge of aphid honeydew composition,sugar preference by P.dives for eleven sugars commonly found in aphid honeydew was also studied.Besides,for eusocial aphid species which can produce soldier individuals to protect aphid colony,the functional relationship between respective protection provided by soldiers and attending ants is a very interesting question worthy of studying.The current research investigated this scientific question by using the social aphid Pseudoregma bambucicola and its attending ants as a model.The main results of this research include:(1)In the foraging situation,when the aphids were with similar colony size,the average stroking frequency of of P.dives antennae showed no significant difference between different aphid species on different hosts.But when the aphids were with different colony sizes,for example the A.odinae on R.chinensis,the average stroking frequency of P.dives antennae was significantly higher for larger aphid colonies.In addition,P.dives much preferred to stroke nymph aphids than adult individuals.(2)When provided eleven sugars at the same time,P.dives preferred to take melezitose and sucrose than the other sugars.In the pairwise choice experiments,the order of preference by the ant for eleven sugars was as follows:sucrose>melezitose>maltose>fructose>glucose>galactose,lactose,melibiose,raffinose,trehalose,xylose.(3)In the social aphid P.bambucicola,there was a complementary relationship between production of soldiers and ant attendance.Bigger aphid colonies with more soldeiers turned to be with less or no ant attendance.Meanwile,there was a negative relationship between the wax density on aphid body and the ant attendance.The analysis based on picture saturation showed that ant-attended aphids carried more wax powder on body than that of non-attended aphids,which may be due to more wax powder influence chemical communication between aphids and ants.This theis firstly investigated the stroking behavior of ant antennae and the ecological relationship between a social aphid and ants.The results provided new evidence for understanding more about aphid-ant interactions. |
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