Gaspar LEGENDRE
Project
Assessment of early spring predation by ants on Forest tent Caterpillars (Malacosoma disstria).Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) possesses extrafloral nectaries (EFN) on the subset of its leaves, attracting parasitoids and predators as ants that feed on the nectar they produce. This mutualism might increase ant predation on forest tent caterpillars (Malacosoma disstria) (FTC). I compared mortality of FTC’s colonies installed on aspen trees on 30 sites during spring. On each site, one colony was free, on another one, an insect-proof cage avoided predation and parasitism, for the last one only ground predators like ants were excluded
