Daily activity and visual discrimination reflects the eye organization of weaver ant<i>Oecophylla smaragdina</i>(Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Mishra, Monalisa; Bhadani, Snigdha

doi:10.1101/193243

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Our results fairly suggest that forager activity could be in uenced by AT, AP and RH and certainly during excessive rainfall. Another report suggested and showed similarity with our ndings with two peaks of foraging activity and a relation to daily temperature and an ability of visual discrimination of nest forms, emphasizing daylight correlation as a decisive limiting factor (Mishra & Bhadani, 2017). Protective and foraging behaviors of O. smaragdina during summer period with high AT values (>42°C) in India (Patel & Bhatt, 2020) are similar to weaver ants' activity at AT above 40°C observations in Malaysian oil palm trees (Exélis Moïse Pierre, pers.obs).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The second hypothesis is by considering the possible effect of weather parameters (i.e., atmospheric pressure (AP), air temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH) and (RI) rainfall interception on the ants' activity pattern. In relation to daytime, O. smaragdina is clearly de ned as a pro cient daylight dependent visual diurnal hunter (Crozier et al, 2010;Mishra & Bhadani, 2017). Reports of earlier studies (Wielgoss et al 2010;Vayssieres et al, 2011) has shown that climatic conditions such as temperature and relative humidity combined with rainfall seasons, may play a role on O. longinoda overall activity (Vayssieres et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relationships between weather parameters and foraging daily activity of Oecophylla smaragdina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in oil palm plantations: Case Study

Pierre

Ramli

Idris

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Asian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaradigma is a nuisance species, effect the plantation employee due to their painful bites. The O. smaragdina was reported as one of the potential predators for the invasive bagworm species, Pteroma pendula in the oil palm plantation. Despite their important role in the plantation, however the study on the ecology and behaviour of the O. smaragdina is still lacking and not discovered. The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships between the foraging daily activities of the O. smaragdina with the weather parameters. In 2018-2022, this study investigates the trunk foraging activity pattern of O. smaragdina colonies (9 days per colony) from selected plantations, as an effort of mitigation. In 2020-2022, a targeted field study was undertaken to examine the daily trunk foraging activities of major workers in relation to air temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH), air pressure (AP) and rainfall (RI). Ground forager behaviours were observed and examined from the trunk trail split covering an average frontal fluctuating angle from base palms. It is suggested that O. smaragdina is a diurnal ant species with much lesser crepuscular intensity. It is demonstrating similar daily foraging activity patterns featuring higher intensity during the warmest daily periods in relation to population size relative abundance. This was irrespective of the dry-wet seasons corresponding to low activity from late scoot-phase to early photo phase, exhibiting a bimodal foraging pattern. Throughout the overnight period, foraging activity ceased. O. smaragdina is a visual light dependent hunter for efficient intensive foraging. Active foragers reached peaks at around 1100 to 1530 hours, and from 1745 to 1845 hours. Between 1620 and 1650 hours, foragers demonstrated a two-fold daily decline in intensity on average. There was a strong positive correlation between foraging activity, AT and AP but negatively correlated with RH. Sustained RI stopped the trunk-ground trail activity of O. smaragdina, exposing outbound foragers withdrawing massively to the canopies. Defensive territorial layers are established from the base palm trunks reaching an average 5 m distance featuring two distinct spatial arrangements. Major workers trunk trails split into several new lines on an average 3 m radius showing higher foraging density. The trails broke off to expand into a web shape figure occupation reaching on average 5 m. The avoidance of forager relentless attacks can be achieved during the daily low activity periods (before 1000 hours) for pruning and harvesting tasks if the adoption of O. smaragdina is implemented to control the invasive Metisa plana bagworm species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between weather parameters and foraging daily activity of Oecophylla smaragdina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in oil palm plantations: Case Study

Pierre

Ramli

Idris

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…in the Finnish sites – did not attack plasticine models (regardless of their shapes) (A Nakamura & EL Zvereva, unpubl.). Oecophylla is known to have well‐developed eyesight (Mishra & Bhadani, 2017), but perhaps they rely more on olfactory and behavioral cues rather than stationary visual cues to hunt their prey. This has serious implications, as studies utilizing plasticine caterpillars may have failed to document predation by dominant ants that do not attack plasticine caterpillars.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating predation pressure in ecological studies: controlling bias imposed by using sentinel plasticine prey

Nimalrathna

Solina

Mon

et al. 2022

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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Sentinel plasticine prey has been increasingly used to estimate predation pressure. The use of plasticine prey may, however, bias the results, as this method was originally designed to account for predation by organisms that can visually recognize the shapes and colors of their prey. To evaluate the limitations of using sentinel plasticine prey, we compared predator attack rates between real prey – dead and live mealworms, Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) – and plasticine models in a monsoonal tropical rainforest of southeastern China. The attack rates by invertebrates were highest on dead prey followed by live prey and plasticine models, whereas the attack rates by vertebrates were lowest on dead prey, and did not differ between live prey and plasticine models. These results confirm that bias imposed by using the plasticine models is affected by the type of predators. In addition, we tested the validity and generality of the premise that predators can distinguish the shapes of plasticine model prey and preferentially attack a caterpillar‐like shape over other shapes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted three independent experiments in China, Papua New Guinea, and Finland. In the two latter localities, predation rates on plasticine caterpillars were higher than on models of other shapes, whereas in China, these differences were not significant. Taken together, our study suggests that plasticine models may underestimate the predation by invertebrates to a greater extent than predation by vertebrates, and the preference of model shape by predators may be locality‐specific, presumably due to differences in the composition of the predator community. We propose that predation be estimated on both live and plasticine prey in future studies to measure the potential bias imposed by using plasticine models and its variation among various habitats and predator groups.

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“…The ants were killed by spraying pyrethrin into the bag and brought back to the laboratory. Under a dark cover, ants have serious difficulty detecting our position due to their impaired vision at night (Mishra and Bhadani, 2017) (see supplementary appendix sup 1). Moreover, the same insecticide spray was occasionally used to prevent the movements of the standing-by vigil ants from the frond's rachis when the nests were being collected.…”

Section: Nest Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of worker population size-density by nest counting in the Asian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina (Formicidae: Formicinae) and its dynamic in oil palm plantations industry

Exélis

Ramli

AZARAE

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Oecophylla smaragdina, arboreal ants in nature, is of economic interest in the Asian tropics for its potential as a low-cost biological control agent in commercial crops (cashew-nuts and recently oil palm trees). Population density-dynamics is fundamental in the study of control agents. In ants, such empirical data are scarce, considering their underground life where excavation destroys the colonies. Moreover, in the course of estimating the worker relative population size and density in a fixed area by nests counting, a population of O. smaragdina was investigated in oil palm plantations, to implement integrated pest management for controlling dominant bagworm defoliators. To minimize the estimation bias caused by the difference in nest characteristics, we analyzed the correlation of those variables to the nest contents. The models of the nest counting method found that the number of nests, the mean of total workers, and the number of trees (correlated with the occupied area) became the most significant variables in estimating the population density. No external nest characteristics was statistically significantly correlated with the number of workers. Hence, the total average worker number per nest, 6333+2907SE (52 undamaged nests, average mean total major-minor: 6332.55) multiplied by the total nest count is appropriate to estimate the relative population size and density of workers (over few million per colony in a fixed occupied area). Four absolute population-wide estimation of the worker density in four plantations was ensued. This study demonstrated the population dynamic stability of O. smaragdina with sufficient numerical resident ants by a long-term monitoring of the occurrence of incipient colonies. Controlling Metisa plana by such IPM might minimize the usage of broad-spectrum long-range contact life cycle disruptive chemicals on natural enemies’ balance in agro-ecosystems.

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Daily activity and visual discrimination reflects the eye organization of weaver antOecophylla smaragdina(Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

Relationships between weather parameters and foraging daily activity of Oecophylla smaragdina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in oil palm plantations: Case Study

Relationships between weather parameters and foraging daily activity of Oecophylla smaragdina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in oil palm plantations: Case Study

Estimating predation pressure in ecological studies: controlling bias imposed by using sentinel plasticine prey

Estimation of worker population size-density by nest counting in the Asian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina (Formicidae: Formicinae) and its dynamic in oil palm plantations industry

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