Ants
A fairly comprehensive check today:
-Dark rover ants were active in large numbers on the plant with scale insects. The ants did not seem particularly interactive with the scale insects.
There is abundant new growth on most of the trees, but particularly on the two that were most heavily populated with the Lactura subfervens larvae. There are very few buds on any of the plants. I wonder if they will even bloom this year?
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The one tree that was hit the hardest from the speckled lactura is making new leaves like crazy. Limbs I thought were dead are greening out! I'm assuming the timely rain we had is helping with that. I don't see any buds on any of my trees but there could be some way up top. I think it's about time for them to bloom.
Still seeing Two-marked treehoppers, adults and some newly hatched nymphs. Crematogaster laeviuscula ants are tending to the nymphs on one tree but nymphs on other trees seem to have no tenders. C. laeviuscula are tending the scale insects also.
Two-marked tree hoppers are present here too, though in smaller numbers. I have also noticed the scale insects on one plant seem to have ant tenders, but the same insects on a different plant have none. Additionally, not all plants seem to have the same arthropod populations. For instance, only about three of my approximately 15 plants have scale insects in significant numbers. Only three or four plants have tree hoppers in significant numbers. Only three of the 15 had Speckled lactura in significant numbers. Spined soldier bug, Podisus maculiventris, were found only on the plants with Speckled lactura. I never saw the Spined soldier bug predate anything other than the Speckled lactura. The 15 plants I am monitoring range in size from 6" to 20' or so. The Size of the plants seems to have some effect on what populates the plant. For example, the scale insects were more numerous on three plants that were less than 2 feet tall. The Speckled lactura and the Spined soldier bugs were on plants about 6-10 feet tall. The single Litodonta hydromeli, Harvey's prominent that I saw was on a plant about 15' in height.
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