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Species exist within communities of other interacting species, so an exogenous force that directly affects one species can indirectly affect all other members of the community. In the case of climate change, many species may be affected directly and subsequently initiate numerous indirect effects that propagate throughout the community. Therefore, the net effect of climate change on any one species is a function of the direct and indirect effects. We investigated the direct and indirect effects of climate warming on corn leaf aphids, a pest of corn and other grasses, by performing an experimental manipulation of temperature, predators, and two common aphid-tending ants. Although warming had a positive direct effect on aphid population growth rate, warming reduced aphid abundance when ants and predators were present. This occurred because winter ants, which aggressively defend aphids from predators under control temperatures, were less aggressive toward predators and less abundant when temperatures were increased. In contrast, warming increased the abundance of cornfield ants, but they did not protect aphids from predators with the same vigor as winter ants. Thus, warming broke down the ant-aphid mutualism and counterintuitively reduced the abundance of this agricultural pest.

Several animal species, including ants, have been reported to be capable of predation on ticks. However, determining factors in most interactions between ticks and predators have not yet been fully deciphered. We hypothesized that the ant species Lasius alienus , which is unknown whether it has any impact on ticks, may exhibit predation on the eggs of tick species Hyalomma marginatum , H. excavatum , and Rhipicephalus bursa , and that the tick egg wax can be the main determinant in possible predation. In the study, 6300 tick eggs with the natural wax coating (waxed/untreated) and 2700 dewaxed tick eggs, the wax of which was removed in the laboratory, were repeatedly presented to the foraging workers belonging to three different ant nests in their natural habitat. Depending on the tick species and trials, the rate of the eggs carried by the ants ranged from 12.8 to 52.1% in the waxed and from 59.8 to 78.4% in the dewaxed eggs. It was observed that the dewaxing process both increased the interest of the ants in the eggs and resulted in a reduction in the variation associated with tick species. This study showed that L. alienus has a predatory effect on tick eggs, the severity of this impact is closely associated with the tick species, the tick-associated difference is caused by the species-specific property of the egg wax, and the variety in the protective effects of the wax seems to be an evolutional result of the biological and ecological adaptation process of the species.

Fire can have negative effects on the ant community by reducing species abundance through direct mortality, changes in resource availability, or foraging activity. Fire can also have positive effects, especially for opportunistic species preferring open or disturbed habitats. We assessed the direct effects of a large-scale fire on ant communities in open habitats (grassland and Carex) and moist forested peatland (birch and alder) sites in Biebrza National Park, testing three hypotheses: (i) the large-scale fire had more significant effects on ant nest density in forests than in open habitats, (ii) the post-fire ant diversity changes within sites are stronger in forests than open habitats, and (iii) ant species preferring disturbed habitats are favoured by the fire event. The fire had negative effects on ant nest density only in the Carex and grassland sites but not in the birch and alder sites, suggesting that fire had a stronger impact in open habitats than in forests. Temporal post-fire ant diversity changes within sites were stronger in forests than in open habitats. We observed higher beta diversity changes between the first and second year of the study in the burned forest sites due to colonisation, indicating a greater fire impact on species community composition followed by a higher recolonisation rate. Ant species preferring disturbed habitats were favoured by the fire. The seed-eating ant species Tetramorium caespitum, a thermophilous and opportunistic species, dominated the burned grassland site. This contrasts with other species, e.g., Lasius alienus, for which nest density decreased after fire, underlining the importance of food resource availability as a major driver of community changes after fire. Our study also underlines the importance of periodic biodiversity monitoring in conservation areas for assessing the recovery of the original status after disturbances and revealing possible habitat changes endangering the survival of local biotic communities.

Numerous authors have studied the diet of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) and have described this species as a generalist predator of invertebrates. In most studies, prey taxa are identified to the family or order level. Additionally, few studies have directly assessed dietary preference by comparing diet to available prey. We chose an important component of the diet of red-backed salamanders (ants) to test whether salamanders altered their diets temporally and to determine if salamanders preyed on a subset of available ant prey. We identified ant species in salamander diets over a 13 mo period. In the fall season we also compared ants in stomach contents to those available in the surrounding leaf litter to determine if territorial residents of P. cinereus selectively forage on different ant species. We found significant temporal differences in ant species incorporated in the diet of P. cinereus that were consistent with our detailed examination of salamander ant preference in the fall. Our estimates of prey diversity and richness indicate that salamanders consumed a subset of available ant species. Aphaenogaster picea, an abundant species that prefers similar microhabitat characteristics to P. cinereus, made up a majority of the ants in the diet. However, our results indicate that P. cinereus avoids foraging on Myrmica punctiventris, Myrmecina americana, and Lasius alienus, ants that are among the most abundant species in the forested areas of northeastern Ohio where the study was conducted. These species are potentially aggressive and/or chemically defended, reducing their profitability as prey. The striped and unstriped morphs of red-backed salamanders foraged similarly on ant taxa, but the striped morph consumed significantly more ants and was found within territories that contained more ants. Our findings suggest selective foraging may be more common among generalist predators than previously considered, and we propose striped and unstriped morphs may represent a trophic polymorphism in P. cinereus.

Mutualistic relationship between ants and aphids species are common phenomena. This association arise from honeydew excretion by aphids. Proportion of honeydew ingredient which is the most important point of this relationship is variable according to both plant and aphid species. In this study, it was determined that 13 ant species associated with 45 aphid species. The most tending ant species associated with many aphid species were Lasius brunneus (Latreille, 1798) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Lasius turcicus Santschi, 1921 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Lasius alienus (Foerster, 1850) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Formica rufibarbis Fabricius, 1793 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Formica cunicularia Latreille, 1798 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The most aphid species associated with many ant species were Aphis spiraecola Patch, 1914 (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763 (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Brachycaudus cardui (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hemiptera: Aphididae).

Impact of ground fire on the soil macro arthropod diversity and soil dynamics was investigated in the forests of Ponmudi-Kallar region of the Western Ghats in Kerala, India. Among the soil macro arthropods, Lasius alienus and Acanthomyops inferjectus were solely confined to the burn site, while Paratrechina longicornis, Aleochava bileneate, Porcellioke viskoch and Buthus brevicandatus are burn intolerant. Analysis of the physico-chemical parameters of the soil in the burn and unburn sites revealed an increase in the water holding capacity of the burn soil, while the standing crop of litter was significantly less in the burn site. The percentages of organic matter in the burn site was 12.45, while in the unburn site it was 6.25 . The amount of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium in the burn site was 38.2%, 6.26 kg ha^sup -1^ and 15.8 kg ha^sup -1^, respectively, while in the unburn site it was 18.2%, 4.1 kg ha^sup -1^ and 11.60 kg ha^sup -1^, respectively.

Nest-mounds of Lasius flavus, Lasius alienus and Formica rufibarbis are mainly on north-facing slopes with a markedly patchy distribution at Gimritz, northwest of Halle (Saale). Nest-mound soils had higher sodium and potassium levels but lower phosphorus and nitrogen levels than soils away from mounds. Moisture content was lower but soil pH was significantly higher in nest-mound soils. However, there was no difference in the relative abundance of plants of alkaline or acid soils growing on mounds compared to plants off mounds and no significant difference between the numbers of nitrophilous plants on and off mounds. Fewer plant species (35 spp.) in total occurred on mounds than off mounds (42 spp.). Plant species richness and total plant cover was significantly less on the nest-mounds than off the mounds. Similarly, the mean number of grass (1.39 spp dm-2) and forb species (1.13 spp dm-2) on mounds was lower than the mean number of grass (1.99 spp dm-2) and forb species (1.91 spp dm-2) off mounds. Some shrubs and forbs had higher occurrence and cover on the mounds, although only in Calluna vulgaris, Thymus serpyllum and Cerastium arvense was this difference particularly marked. Ant nest-mounds may favour plant species that cannot compete with tall grasses on unmanaged, set-aside meadows.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This paper evaluates the effects of exploitation and interference on the foraging behavior of nine species of ants in a Maryland woodlot. These species overlapped substantially in both the size and type of prey taken. Three types of encounters occurred between species at baits: attacks, avoidance, and coexistence. Camponotus ferrugineus, Lasius alienus, Prenolepis imparis, and Formica subsericea fell into a dominant group, while the Myrmica spp. (M. punctiventris and M. emeryana), Aphaenogaster rudis, Tapinoma sessile, and Leptothorax curvispinosus were increasingly subordinate. Subordinate species significantly reduced feeding time when in the presence of other species. Exploitative abilities of the species were studied by observing ant activity at baits. Leptothorax curvispinosus, Aphaenogaster rudis, and the Myrmica spp. arrived first at a higher percentage of baits than did Camponotus ferrugineus, which was significantly slower at finding new food sources. An inverse correlation was found between exploitative and interference ability, which enabled the subordinate species to obtain resources. In most cases, the speed of bait location was no correlated with distance of the bait from the colony.

In order to find a method for measuring field metabolism of worker ants the elimination of134Cs by two ant species has been investigated. Equations relating temperature to radiocaesium elimination and metabolism have been found. From these equations the relationship between elimination and metabolism is calculated. Consequently, the elimination of the isotope can be used for measuring metabolism. A pilot field experiment with Lasius alienus (Först.) reveals that the traditional methods of estimating field metabolism give values which are considerably lower than the value based on caesium elimination rate. This difference is supposed to be mainly due to greater motor activity of the animals in the field. Consequently, the value of the caesium elimination method is closer to the \"true\" value of field metabolism.