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Effects of the concurrent exclusion of ants and earwigs on aphid abundance in an organic citrus grove

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Abstract

Based on the well-known mutualism between ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae), we conducted a five-year experiment of ant-exclusion from the canopies of citrus trees as a possible method of biological control of aphids. However, our results showed that the exclusion of ants from the canopies increased, instead of reducing, aphid abundance. To explain this unexpected result, we reasoned that the exclusion of ants from the canopies might also have excluded crawling insects that prey on aphids, such as the European earwig (Forficula auricularia L., Dermaptera: Forficulidae). Such a possibility is supported by the negative relationship between aphid density and the abundance of earwigs, consistent with a top-down control of aphids by earwigs. In contrast, the abundance of other aphid predators (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae, and Heteroptera) had no such negative effect on aphid density but a positive one, suggesting a bottom-up control, and showed no differences between control and ant-excluded trees. Thus, the most likely explanation for the increase in aphid abundance in the ant-excluded trees is the absence of earwigs from the canopies of the experimental trees, providing further evidence of the major role that earwigs play as control agents of aphids in cultivated trees.

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Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to Pere Cañellas and Núria Mas for permission to conduct field research on their land and to Cristina Delgado for helping us in the field work. Heteropterans were identified by Jordi and Eva Ribes and Coccinellidae by Pep Muñoz. We thank Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Daniel Sol and three anonymous reviewers for valuable discussions and comments on the paper, and David Owen for revising the English language. This work has been supported by grants from MEC-FEDER (CGL2004-05240-C02-01/BOS and CGL2007-64080-C02-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology Unit and CREAF, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Josep Piñol & Xavier Espadaler

  2. IES M Rubió i Tudurí, Marquès de Comillas, 36, 08038, Barcelona, Spain

    Núria Cañellas

  3. Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, University of León, 24071, León, Spain

    Nicolás Pérez

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  1. Josep Piñol
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  4. Nicolás Pérez
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Correspondence to Josep Piñol.

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Piñol, J., Espadaler, X., Cañellas, N. et al. Effects of the concurrent exclusion of ants and earwigs on aphid abundance in an organic citrus grove. BioControl 54, 515–527 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-008-9203-8

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