title: Local and Landscape Drivers of Ant Parasitism in a Coffee Landscape.
abstract: Parasitism of ants that nest in rotting wood by eucharitid wasps was studied in order to examine whether habitat and season influence ant parasitism, vegetation complexity and agrochemical use correlate with ant parasitism, and whether specific local and landscape features of agricultural landscapes correlate with changes in ant parasitism. In a coffee landscape, 30 coffee and 10 forest sites were selected in which local management (e.g., vegetation, agrochemical use) and landscape features (e.g., distance to forest, percent of rustic coffee nearby) were characterized. Rotten logs were sampled and ant cocoons were collected from logs and cocoons were monitored for parasitoid emergence. Sixteen ant morphospecies in three ant subfamilies (Ectatomminae, Ponerinae, and Formicinae) were found. Seven ant species parasitized by two genera of Eucharitidae parasitoids (Kapala and Obeza) were reported and some ant-eucharitid associations were new. According to evaluated metrics, parasitism did not differ with habitat (forest, high-shade coffee, low-shade coffee), but did increase in the dry season for Gnamptogenys ants. Parasitism increased with vegetation complexity for Gnamptogenys and Pachycondyla and was high in sites with both high and low agrochemical use. Two landscape variables and two local factors positively correlated with parasitism for some ant genera and species. Thus, differences in vegetation complexity at the local and landscape scale and agrochemical use in coffee landscapes alter ecological interactions between parasitoids and their ant hosts.
authors: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Ecología de Artrópodos y Manejo de Plagas, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto Km 2.5 Tapachula 30700, Chiapas, México. sphilpot@ucsc.edu.
authors: Aldo
authors: A
authors: De la Mora
authors: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Conservación de la Biodiversidad, Avenida Centenario km 5.5, Chetumal 77014, Quintana Roo, México.
authors: Gabriela
authors: G
authors: Pérez-Lachaud
authors: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Conservación de la Biodiversidad, Avenida Centenario km 5.5, Chetumal 77014, Quintana Roo, México. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS-UMR 5169, Université de Toulouse UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 09, France.
authors: Jean-Paul
authors: JP
authors: Lachaud
authors: Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
authors: Stacy M
authors: SM
authors: Philpott
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000469:parasitology*; D040503:Coffea / Q000254:growth & development*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008800:Mexico; D014863:Wasps / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: coffee; eucharitidae; formicidae; vegetation complexity