Interação tritrófica entre Formiga, Homóptera e Mimosa Tenuiflora (Willd.) Pior.

Abstract

Ecological relationships are fundamental to the balance between organisms on the planet and those involving three trophic levels are called tritrophic interactions. An example of this is the occurrence of ants and homoptera in plants, where the ants use the plants to nest and end up also interacting with the homoptera feeding on the sugary exudates made available by the membracídeos, in this way, they end up acting in the defense towards them, of possible predators, as well as herbivores and pathogens for the plant. This defensive behavior of the ants ends up reflecting positively in the reproductive success of plants. The research was carried out from november to december of 2017, and during ten days ten individuals of Mimosa tenuiflora were observed and the occurrence of reproductive structures, homoptera and ants were verified. Data were submitted to a correlation test. After the observations were verified a species of homoptera and three species of ants, being: Ectatomma sp., Cephalotes sp. and Crematogaster sp. There was no correlation between the number of inflorescences and ants, number of fruits and ants, number of fruits and homoptera, and of ants and homoptera. In relation to the number of inflorescences and homoptera, there was a negative correlation (r = -0.66, p = 0.03). As for observation times, the ants were more present in the morning, from 07:25h to 09:30h. The results showed that the presence of reproductive and homopteran structures in M. tenuiflora were not a determinant factor for the incidence of ants.