The Presence of Spissistilus Festinus as a Factor Affecting Egg Predation by Ants in Soybeans
Abstract
Five ant species, of which Solenopsis geminata (F.) and Conomyrma insana (Buckley) were the most abundant, tended nymphs of the three-cornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say), on soybeans in a north Florida field. The presence of nymphs tended by ants was examined as a factor affecting predation on eggs of the soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens Walker. Where S. geminata tended the nymphs, the percentage of looper eggs missing after 24 hr was significantly greater from plants with nymphs (77.1%) than from plants without nymphs (36.8%). Where C. insana tended the nymphs, the percentage of eggs missing was significantly greater from plants with nymphs than from plants without nymphs after 4 hr (36.8% vs. 17.5%) and 8 hr (65.6% vs. 42.9%), but not after 24 hr (90.7% vs. 86.3%). In all experiments, the proportion of eggs missing was greatest from the lowest 1/3 of the plant and least from the upper 1/3.Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright for any article published in Florida Entomologist is held by the author(s) of the article. Florida Entomologist is an open access journal. Florida Entomologist follows terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License (cc by-nc). By submitting and publishing articles in Florida Entomologist, authors grant the FOJ and Florida Entomologist's host institutions permission to make the article available through Internet posting and electronic dissemination, and to otherwise archive the information contained both electronically and in a hard printed version. When used, information and images obtained from articles must be referenced and cited appropriately. Articles may be reproduced for personal, educational, or archival purposes, or any non-commercial use. Permission should be sought from the author(s) for multiple, non-commercial reproduction. Written permission from the author(s) is required for any commercial reproduction.