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An experiment on ant predation in soil using a new bait trap method

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Ecological Research

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 April 1997

Abstract

To examine which species of ant are underground predators, we invented a simple bait trap using live mealworms as bait. A total of 75 bait traps were buried in soil at various depths (10, 20, 30 and 50 cm) to investigate the vertical distribution of predatory ants. The ants captured in approximately 50% of the traps were mostlyTetramorium caespitum andSolenopsis japonica. Solenopsis japonica was captured at greater depths (>30 m) thanT. caespitum. Eight kinds of soil invertebrate (the earthworm, wood louse, pill bug, millipede, adults of the dung beetle and carabid beetle, larvae of a cetoniine beetle and the earwig), placed in traps at a depth of 10 cm, varied greatly in attractiveness and vulnerability to ant predation. The earthworm and the wood louse were both attractive and vulnerable to ant predation, whereas the pill bug, the dung beetle and the millipede were attractive but not vulnerable. The larvae of a cetoniine beetle, the carabid beetle and the earwig were mostly unattractive.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecological Sciences, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, 955-2 Aoba-cho, Chuo-ku, 260, Chiba, Japan

    Takeshi Yamaguchi & Masami Hasegawa

Authors
  1. Takeshi Yamaguchi
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  2. Masami Hasegawa
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Additional information

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02523616.

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Yamaguchi, T., Hasegawa, M. An experiment on ant predation in soil using a new bait trap method. Ecol. Res. 11, 11–16 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02347815

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02347815

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