Testing ant predation on the coffee berry borer in shaded and sun coffee plantations in Colombia

Soil-dwelling ants, many of which are generalist predators, are more diverse in shaded than in sun coffee plantations without trees. We compared ant predation on the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in three shaded and three sun coffee plantations in Apia, Colombia, in both the wet and the dry seasons. We found that H. hampei adults exposed to ants for 5 days suffered higher removal in shaded plantations and in the wet season. In the laboratory, we observed that ants killed 74-99% of H. hampei adults over the course of 5 days. Ants appear to be important predators of H. hampei, particularly in shaded coffee plantations and in the wet season.