Determined Aphid and Ant Associations from Trabzon, Rize and Artvin Provinces of the Turkey

Aphids and ant species are both diverse and extremely successful groups of insects and often share the same habitats and therefore both have many oportunities to interact with each other. It has been shown that, aphid-ant relationships have been shaped by various factors particularly aphid host plant's physiological features, honeydew composition, feeding position and so on. Despite there are more than 500 aphid species and about 315 ant taxon in Turkey, there are very few studies conducted on their mutual relationship. This study was carried out in the Trabzon, Rize and Artvin provinces of Turkey. As a result of the evaluation of samples, it was determined that 48 aphid species associated with 15 ant species. The most encountered ant species, which interacted with different number of aphid species, were Formica cinereofusca Karawaiew, 1929, Lasius turcicus Santschi, 1921 and Lasius emarginatus (Olivier, 1792). Findings of the presented study indicated that, much more detailed study should be conducted to investigate aphid-ant mutualistic associations in Turkey.