Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:38:19.986Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Azteca instabilis ants and the defence of a coffee shade tree: an ant–plant association without mutual rewards in Chiapas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2010

David J. Gonthier ,
Gabriella L. Pardee  and
Stacy M. Philpott
David J. Gonthier*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, 2801 W Bancroft Rd Mail Stop 604, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
Gabriella L. Pardee
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, 2801 W Bancroft Rd Mail Stop 604, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
Stacy M. Philpott
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, 2801 W Bancroft Rd Mail Stop 604, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: Gonthier.david@gmail.com, david.gonthier@Rockets.Utoledo.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are important predators of herbivorous insects on plants (Rosumek et al. 2009). Ant removal or absence may result in negative indirect effects on plants, as herbivore abundance and herbivory increase and plant growth and reproduction decline (Rosumek et al. 2009, Schmitz et al. 2000). Ant presence on plants often results from a mutualistic interaction. For example, strong highly coevolved ant–plant mutualisms are found on myrmecophytic plants that house ants in domatia (specialized nesting sites). Weaker mutualistic associations are found with myrmecophilic plants that only offer extra-floral nectaries (EFNs) or food bodies to attract ants, or on other plants hosting honeydew-producing hemipterans (indirect ant–plant interactions) that mediate ant abundance (Hölldobler & Wilson 1990). However, in most cases, plants and arboreal ants form more passive associations, where ants nest in the natural cavities of branches or bark, or construct carton nests on plant substrates (Hölldobler & Wilson 1990) and the only reward plants offer these ants is the use of their substrates. In these situations the indirect effect of ants on plants is merely by chance, a byproduct of ant presence (byproduct association).

Keywords

AlticinaebeetlesChrysomelidaeConostegia xalapensistri-trophic interaction
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 343 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

CHAMBERLAIN, S. A. & HOLLAND, J. N. 2009. Quantitative synthesis of context dependency in ant-plant protection mutualisms. Ecology 90:2384–2392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HÖLLDOBLER, B. & WILSON, E. O. 1990. The Ants. Belknap Press and Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 732 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LETOURNEAU, D. K., ARIAS, F. & JEBB, M. 1993. Coping with enemy-filled space: herbivores on Endospermum in Papua New Guinea. Biotropica 25:95–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OFFENBERG, J., HAVANON, S., AKSORNKOAE, S., MACINTOSH, D. J. & NIELSEN, M. G. 2004. Observations on the ecology of weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius) in a Thai mangrove ecosystem and their effect on herbivory of Rhizophora mucronata Lam. Biotropica 36:344–351.Google Scholar
PERFECTO, I. & VANDERMEER, J. 2006. The effect of an ant-hemipteran mutualism on the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) in southern Mexico. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 117:218–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PHILPOTT, S. M., GREENBERG, R., BICHIER, P. & PERFECTO, I. 2004. Impacts of major predators on tropical agroforest arthropods: comparisons within and across taxa. Oecologia 140:140–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PHILPOTT, S. M., PERFECTO, I. & VANDERMEER, J. 2008. Behavioral diversity of predatory arboreal ants in coffee agroecosystems. Environmental Entomology 37:181–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ROSUMEK, F. B., SILVEIRA, F. A. O., NEVES, F. D. S., BARBOSA, N. P. D. U., DINIZ, L., OKI, Y., PEZZINI, F., FERNANDES, G. W. & CORNELISSEN, T. 2009. Ants on plants: a meta-analysis of the role of ants as plant biotic defenses. Oecologia 160:537–549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SCHMITZ, O. J., HAMBÄCK, P. A. & BECKERMAN, A. P. 2000. Trophic cascades in terrestrial systems: a review of the effects of carnivore removals on plants. American Naturalist 155:141–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
VANDERMEER, J., PERFECTO, I. & PHILPOTT, S. M. 2008. Clusters of ant colonies and robust criticality in a tropical agroecosystem. Nature 451:457–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WHITE, R. E. 1983. A field guide to the beetles of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. 368 pp.Google Scholar
ZUCHOWSKI, W. 2007. Tropical plants of Costa Rica: a guide to native and exotic flora. Zone Tropical, Ithaca. 529 pp.Google Scholar