Effect of the Argentine ant on the specialist myrmecophilous cricket Myrmecophilus kubotai in western Japan |
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| Authors: | Yoshifumi Touyama Takeshi Kameyama Fuminori Ito |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Hiroshima, Japan;2. Fukken Co., Ltd, Hiroshima, Japan;3. Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa Universtiy, Miki, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Effects of the Argentine ant on myrmecophilous animals living inside ant nests have been rarely studied to date. We investigated whether the “specialist” myrmecophilous cricket Myrmecophilus kubotai Maruyama that lives only in colonies of a Japanese native ant, Tetramorium tsushimae Emery, could live with the Argentine ant. In the field, the cricket was never found in nests of the Argentine ant. Our experiments showed that the cricket could not survive in artifical nests of the Argentine ant under laboratory conditions. |
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| Keywords: | ant guest host specificity invasive ant
Linepithema humile Myrmecophilidae Orthoptera symbiosis |
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