MUTUALISTIC ASSOCIATION 
BETWEEN ANTS AND SOME HOMOPTERA 
— ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN COCOA PRODUCTION* 
By A. O. Adenuga 
Department of Plant Science, 
University of Ife, Ile-Ife (Nigeria) 
During my field collections of ants in some cocoa farms on Ondo 
Road in Western Nigeria, I have come to observe that certain species 
of ants are associated with scale insects (Coccidae), mealybugs (Pseu- 
dococcidae) and aphids in a way which suggests that the association 
must be mutually beneficial. Although a great deal has been done by 
many workers to determine experimentally the nature of this asso- 
ciation (Strickland, 1951; Nixon, 1951; Way 1954), there seems to 
be so much variation in the degree of the ant-Homoptera association 
that many questions still remain unanswered. Further, many claims 
by previous workers need to be substantiated, particularly as these 
claims in some instances are contradictory. In this paper I present 
an account of the ants and Homoptera that were observed in asso- 
ciation on the cocoa farm in West Nigeria., an analysis of this associa- 
tion, and a discussion of the effects of the association on the cocoa 
crops. Although there are records of ant-Homoptera association for 
Ghana and some other parts of West Africa (Strickland, 1951; 
Leston, 1970), these are the first such records, as far as I am aware, 
for Nigeria. 
The following is a list of Homoptera attended to varying degrees 
by ants : 
Family Pseudococcidae 
Planoooccoides sp. nr. njalensis (?) 
Phenacoccus hargreavesi (Laing) 
Plcinococcus citri (Risso) 
Ferrisia virgata (Cockerell) 
Dysmicoccus brevis (Cockerell) 
Family Coccidae 
Gascardia sp. 
* Manuscript received by the editor February 20, 1975 
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