ANT MOSAIC IN OIL PALM PLANTATIONS OF THE SOUTHWEST PROVINCE OF CAMEROON - IMPACT ON LEAF MINER BEETLE (COLEOPTERA, CHRYSOMELIDAE)

A study was conducted to determine the distribution of ants in the cro wns of oil palms on 2 plantations (Mpundu and Mondoni) in southwest Ca meroon (a total of 615 oil palms). Six dominant species [Crematogaster gabonensis (Emery), Tetramorium aculeatum (Mayr), Oecophylla longinod a (Latreille), Monomorium sp., Pheidole megacephala (F.), and Paratrec hina sp.] were distributed in a mosaic pattern. C. gabonensis was the most frequent ant species in Mpundu (86% of the oil palms), whereas in Mondoni it was in competition with T. aculeatum (45.8% of the oil pal ms of the 6 parcels of land) and was recorded at a lower rate (51.1%). On 3 parcels in Mondoni, T. aculeatum was the most frequent; whereas on 2 others, C. gabonensis was the most frequent, and in the last parc el these 2 species were evenly distributed. Therefore, oil palm planta tions shelter dominant ant mosaics as do plantations of other trees of economic interest and tropical forests. The percentages of oil palms occupied by one or the other of the 2 most frequent dominant ants reco rded in 12 parcels were compared with the rate of attack by Coelaemeno dera minuta Uhmann. Low rates of attack by the hispine beetle were rec orded for parcels where the percentages of oil palms occupied by C. ga bonensis were high; the opposite was true for parcels where the percen tages of oil palms occupied by T. aculeatum were high.