The new association records on ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in the Central Province of Çanakkale

Abstract

Aphid and ant species have a mutualistic or an obligately mutualistic association in nature conditions. Many ant species protect soft-bodied aphids with a low level of defense against their natural enemies. This study was conducted to determine the associations between aphid and ant species from 2014 to 2015 in the Center of Çanakkale Province and 12 ant species belonging to 8 genera in Dolichoderinae, Formicinae and Myrmicinae subfamilies of Formicidae associated with 16 aphid species were determined. The most encountered ant species associated with different aphids were Lasius alienus (Foerster, 1850), Plagiolepis pygmaea (Latreille, 1798), Camponotus aethiops Latreille, 1798 and Plagiolepis taurica Santsci, 1920. The most encountered aphid species associated with different ant species, were; Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763, Aphis gossypii Glover, 1877 and Aphis craccivora Koch, 1854. Moreover, Camponotus samius Forel, 1889, Camponotus sanctus Forel, 1904, Crematogaster ionia Forel, 1911 and Pheidole cf. pallidula (Nylander, 1849) associations with aphids were determined for the first time in Turkey. Furthermore, Aphis nerii Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1841, Aphis punicae Passerini, 1863, Aphis umbrella (Börner, 1950), Chaitophorus leucomelas Koch, 1854, Chromaphis juglandicola (Kaltenbach, 1843), Panaphis juglandis (Goeze, 1778), Prociphilus fraxini (Fabricius, 1777) and their associations with different ant species were determined for the first time in Turkey. Consequently, the recent studies indicated that aphid-ant associations should be further detailed investigated locally.