Butterflies and ants: The communicative domain

Associations with ants, termed myrmecophily, are widespread in the butterfly family Lycaenidae and range from mere co-existence to more or less specific mutualistic or even parasitic interactions. Secretions of specialized epidermal glands are crucial for mediating the interactions. Transfer of nutrients (carbohydrates, amino acids) from butterfly larvae to ants plays a major role, but manipulative communication with the help of odour signals is also involved. By means of myrmecophily, lycaenid butterflies largely escape ant predation, and certain species gain protection through attendant ants or achieve developmental benefits from ant-attendance. Benefits to the ants range from minimal to substantial food rewards. While most lycaenid species maintain facultative relationships with a variety of ant genera, highly specific and obligatory associations have convergently evolved in a number of butterfly lineages. As a corollary, communication systems are largely unspecific in the former, but may be highly specialized in the latter. The sophisticated communication between obligate myrmecophiles and their host ants is tightly connected with the evolutionary rise of specialized life-cycles and thus is a source of augmenting diversity within the butterflies.     

榕树与榕小蜂共生体系维持机制的研究进展

榕树与传粉榕小蜂是传粉互利共生和协同进化的经典范例之一，分子钟和化石记录显示榕树与榕小蜂共生体系的起源大约在8700万年前。共生体系是如何维持如此漫长的年代？围绕这一问题国内外学者已经展开了较为丰富的研究，本文综述了国内外关于共生体系的起源与维持的主要研究成果，旨在讨论该热点领域研究进展。促进该领域的研究深入开展。     

Biological characterization of the obligate symbiosis between Acropyga sauteri Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Eumyrmococcus smithii Silvestri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae: Rhizoecinae) on Okinawa Island,southern Japan

The ant Acropyga sauteri Forel has an obligate, mutualistic symbiosis with a mealybug, Eumyrmococcus smithii Silvestri, on Okinawa Island, southern Japan. The mealybugs live inside ant nests nearly all their lives, and the ants depend on them for food. Alate foundress queens carry mealybugs during their nuptial flights, using them to establish new colonies at new sites. However, important aspects of the symbiosis have not yet been elucidated. The present study characterizes the basic biology of the symbiosis and describes for the first time the morphologies of all growth stages of E. smithii. Our study suggests that E. smithii has only one nymphal stage, followed by a female pupal stage or male prepupal stage. Intensive sampling of ant nests across seasons showed that A. sauteri prefers nest sites 5–20 cm underground. Acropyga sauteri produced reproductive stages mainly in mid‐March or early April, and numbers of both ant workers and mealybugs increased from spring to summer. Experimental determination of colony identity with a method using nestmate recognition by ants suggested that each ant colony rarely has a perimeter greater than 30 cm, that the ants are monogynous, and that different ant colonies are densely aggregated along the root system of a plant, adjacent to each other but not interflowing. Both symbiotic partners were vulnerable to attacks by several common subaerial ant species following physical disturbance to their nests.     

一类时滞积分微分型互惠系统概周期解的存在性

研究一类时滞积分微分型互惠系统,得到了系统存在唯一概周期解的一组充分条件.     

聚果榕小蜂群落在中国西双版纳和缅甸曼德勒之间的地理变异

榕树及其传粉榕小蜂之间的相互作用是互惠共生的经典例子，每种雌雄同株的榕树还庇护着多样的非传粉小蜂，并共生形成多营养级的榕小蜂群落，是研究群落生态学的有趣模型。区域的物种库、物种的生物地理特征及种间相互作用可能影响榕小蜂群落，但研究很少。本研究选择分布于中国西双版纳和缅甸曼德勒的雌雄同株聚果榕小蜂群落作为研究对象，比较地理分布差异对榕小蜂个体大小及共存网络的影响。结果显示：聚果榕小蜂群落在两地由相同的6个种组成，但分布于西双版纳的6种榕小蜂的个体均显著大于分布在曼德勒的同种榕小蜂。在两个分布地传粉榕小蜂均为优势种，然而在西双版纳传粉榕小蜂种群较大，而在曼德勒非传粉小蜂更丰富。在两地聚果榕有不同的榕小蜂群落结构和物种丰富度，且榕小蜂共存的网络也存在变异，在两地共存网络有相同的节点、边、连接度和全局聚类系数，但是在西双版纳的共存网络有较大的直径和较高的群落矩阵温度，这表明分布于西双版纳的聚果榕小蜂群落种间互作不太紧密，群落受到的干扰较大。由此，阐明了由地理分布所驱动的榕小蜂群落变异。     

昆虫授粉生态的研究

昆虫是重要的授粉者.昆虫授粉可提高农作物的产量和品质,给人类带来巨大的经济效益.在长期协同进化的过程中,授粉昆虫与显花植物在个体、种群、群落水平上通过相互作用形成一个复杂的系统,彼此之间存在着相互依存、相互促进、相互竞争、互惠共生等多种联系.在自然界,昆虫的授粉过程和授粉效率受到各种生物与非生物因子的影响.因此,开展昆虫授粉生态的研究,将有利于阐明昆虫授粉的机理和提高昆虫授粉的效率.     

连续与离散互惠模型的持续生存

研究了一类具有时滞的连续互惠共存模型,进一步分析了该模型的离散类比,利用比较原理得到了连续与离散互惠模型持续生存的充分条件.     

植食性昆虫、植物和共生微生物的功能关联

植食性昆虫和植物均能与微生物形成密切关系，它们各自的生态功能及相互关系也常被共生微生物所影响。近年来，随着分子水平研究方法的进展，植食性昆虫和植物中很多可遗传共生微生物（细菌、真菌等）被发现。共生微生物能够在营养、生殖、防御和解毒等方面给宿主带来显著影响，并与宿主形成竞争、互利或寄生等关系。植食性昆虫体内的含菌胞、肠道、血淋巴、唾液腺等常含有重要功能的共生微生物。新的分子生物学手段和高通量测序技术的应用使得我们能够增加对宿主和共生微生物（即使处于低丰度）之间关系的了解。本文尝试总结了植食性昆虫和植物共生微生物的多样性及其关系、昆虫和植物互作机制、昆虫共生菌解毒植物毒素等方面的近期证据，突出强调了应以系统观思维来理解共生微生物、植食性昆虫和植物间的功能关联，并就将来值得研究的问题提出了建议。     

Effects of different ant species on the attendance of neighbouring hemipteran colonies and the outcomes for the host plant

Ants commonly participate simultaneously in mutualisms with honeydew-producing hemipterans and extrafloral nectar-bearing host plants. These interactions are based on the exchange of resources (honeydew and extrafloral nectar) for ant protection against natural enemies. The benefits may vary according to the species of ant interacting, and the outcomes for the host plant and hemipteran will depend on the results of the ant-plant-hemipteran relationship as a whole. We studied a plant-mealybug association with Camponotus crassus Mayr (Formicinae) and Ectatomma tuberculatum Olivier (Ectatomminae) in a Brazilian tropical savanna. We aimed to elucidate whether the frequency of visitation by different species of ants can be affected by neighbouring colonies of mealybugs, and whether these ant species influence the number of hemipterans in a different way. Furthermore, we intended to find out whether the interaction between ant and hemipteran has any effect on the proportion of fruit production or on the abundance of trophobiont and non-trophobiont herbivores, also influenced by the ant species. Our results show that neighbouring aggregations of mealybugs influenced the frequency of ant visitation and the ants affected the number of nymphs over time, with both positive results only for C. crassus. We also detected an indirect negative effect on proportion of fruit production and an increase in abundance of trophobiont and non-trophobiont herbivores in the presence of C. crassus-mealybug interaction. Thus, we provide further evidence that colonies of hemipterans interacting with ants can be beneficial for these herbivorous insects, but they are quite harmful to the host plant. Nevertheless, the outcomes can be highly conditional in relation to ant species.