Sharma, G., & Sundararaj, R. 2011 Association of Ants and Honeydew Producing Sucking Pests in Bangalore Provenance of Sandal (Santalum album Linn.). Biological Forum 3(2): 62-64

Keywords:

ant association

ecology

Notes: Mutualism between individuals of two species is increasingly recognized as a common and important ecological interaction. Interactions between ants and honeydew-producing hemipteran insects are abundant and widespread in arthropod food webs, though their ecological consequences are not well understood. Ant-hemipteran interactions have potentially broad ecological effects, because the presence of honeydew-producing hemipterans dramatically alters the abundance and predatory behaviour of ants on plants. In this paper we present an account of the ants and Hemiptera that were observed in association in Bangalore provenance of Sandal. Different ants were found associated with five species of coccids viz., Cardiococcus bivalvata Green (Coccidae), Ceroplastes actiniformis Green (Coccidae), Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead) (Pseudococcidae), Parasaissetia nigra (Nietner) (Coccidae) and Saissetia coffeae Targioni-Tozzetti (Coccidae) and three species of membracids viz., Leptocentrus longispinus Dist., Otinotus oneratus Walk. and Oxyrachis tarandus Fabr. Ants were known for protecting hemipterans from predators and parasitoids, their association may accelerate the growth and impact of honeydew-producing hemipterans on sandal plants and these findings were discussed in this paper.