ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e83847
The first record of the myrmecophilous caterpillar Liphyra brasollis in weaver ant nests in oil palm plantations
expand article infoAndreas Dwi Advento‡§, Kalsum M Yusah|, Hasber Salim#, Mohammad Naim‡, Jean-Pierre Caliman‡, Tom Maurice Fayle¤«
‡ Smart Research Institute, Pekanbaru, Indonesia§ Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia| Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia¶ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, United Kingdom# School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden Penang, Penang, Malaysia¤ Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Branišovská 1160/31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic« School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

Corresponding author: Andreas Dwi Advento ( adadvento@gmail.com )

Corresponding author: Kalsum Yusah ( kalsum.myusah@gmail.com )

© Andreas Dwi Advento, Kalsum Yusah, Hasber Salim, Mohammad Naim, Jean-Pierre Caliman, Tom Fayle.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Dwi Advento A, Yusah KM, Salim H, Naim M, Caliman J-P, Fayle TM (2022) The first record of the myrmecophilous caterpillar Liphyra brasollis in weaver ant nests in oil palm plantations. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e83847
Open Access
Abstract

Asian weaver ants are an important biocontrol agent in agricultural habitats. We conducted surveys in oil palm plantations for an obligate myrmecophilous butterfly larvae Liphyra brassolis that is known to consume weaver ant larvae in other habitat types. We found L. brassolis larvae in five of the twenty nests surveyed, with larval presence not being related to weaver ant nest size. We also observed L. brassolis larvae in a weaver ant mass rearing facility. This is the first report of L. brassolis from oil palm plantations, and has implications for the use of weaver ants as biological control agents.

Keywords
Liphyra brassolis, weaver ants, predator, pest, oil palm