Extrafloral‐nectaries and interspecific aggressiveness regulate day/night turnover of ant species foraging for nectar on<i>Bionia coriacea</i>

Anjos, Diego V.; Caserio, Bárbara; Rezende, Felipe; Ribeiro, Sérvio Pontes; Del‐Claro, Kleber; Fagundes, Roberth

doi:10.1111/aec.12446

Cited by 50 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…This reduction in the need of the ground use minimizes possible confrontations with other ant species, once the ground strata is naturally richer in ant species (Vasconcelos & Vilhena, 2006;Neves et al, 2013;Vicente et al, 2016). Competition between species for C. levior is damaging since it lost its chemical defense, depending on the defensive ability of C. femoratus (Longino, 2003) that show aggressive behavior (Vicente et al, 2014) as well as other species of Neotropical species of Camponotus (Yamamoto & Del-Claro, 2008;Santos & Del-Claro, 2009;Alves-Silva & Del-Claro, 2014;Anjos et al, 2016). Thus, C. femoratus did not show influence of vegetation connectivity in use of strata, showing a partition in the niche between the two ant species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Habitat Use by the Parabiotic Ants Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) and Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003

Vicente¹,

Izzo²

2017

Sociobiology

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Ant-garden ants have a strong relationship with epiphytes that need light to grow, for these reason, it has been previously documented in forest gaps. Moreover, larger gaps have more available area for nesting and habitats for use as forage. Thus we hypothesize that 1) canopy openness influence the presence of ant´s gardens in gaps, and 2) greater gaps will have more nests, and 3) both openness canopy and area determine the colony size in forest gaps. Furthermore, it is known that parabiotic ants foraging on the ground and in vegetation, the nests are arboreal. So, we also hypothesize that 4) parabiotic ants are more often sampled in arboreal strata and 5) increasing vegetation connectivity and the volume of accumulated litter in the soil increase the foraging of the ants in vegetation and ground, respectively, with the increase in canopy openness increasing the activity of the two species in both strata. Presence, number of Ant-gardens, as colony size, was affected by area and locality, but not by canopy openness. Nevertheless, there was not overall difference in the use of strata by Camponotus femoratus, neither by Crematogaster levior. On the other hand, frequency of C. femoratus on the ground decreases with canopy openness but is not affected by the vegetation connectivity. Also, C. levior frequency on the ground also decreases with the increase of complexity of vegetation and canopy openness. In addition, neither vegetation connectivity, or canopy openness influence the frequency of foraging of these ants in understory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Habitat Use by the Parabiotic Ants Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) and Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003

Vicente¹,

Izzo²

2017

Sociobiology

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“…For nocturnal observations, we used a headlamp with a red plastic filter to avoid disturbing the ants. We sampled the spectrum of ants over 24 hr, because the composition of ant species interacting with extrafloral nectary‐bearing plants is known to differ between day and night (Anjos et al., ; Dáttilo et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar quality affects ant aggressiveness and biotic defense provided to plants

et al. 2019

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Ant–plant mutualisms are useful models for investigating how plant traits mediate interspecific interactions. As plant‐derived resources are essential components of ant diets, plants that offer more nutritious food to ants should be better defended in return, as a result of more aggressive behavior toward natural enemies. We tested this hypothesis in a field experiment by adding artificial nectaries to individuals of the species Vochysia elliptica (Vochysiaceae). Ants were offered one of four liquid foods of different nutritional quality: amino acids, sugar, sugar + amino acids, and water (control). We used live termites (Nasutitermes coxipoensis) as herbivore competitors and observed ant behavior toward them. In 88 hr of observations, we recorded 1,009 interactions with artificial nectaries involving 1,923 individual ants of 26 species. We recorded 381 encounters between ants and termites, of which 38% led to attack. Sixty‐one percent of these attacks led to termite exclusion from the plants. Recruitment and patrolling were highest when ants fed upon nectaries providing sugar + amino acids, the most nutritious food. This increase in recruitment and patrolling led to higher encounter rates between ants and termites, more frequent attacks, and faster and more complete termite removal. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that plant biotic defense is mediated by resource quality. We highlight the importance of qualitative differences in nectar composition for the outcome of ant–plant interactions. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

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“…Our data showed strong spatial segregation at attractive baits, but less so at nonattractive baits. This indicates that resource competition depends on the quality of the resource (Blüthgen & Fiedler, ), for example, if extrafloral sugar concentration is lower at night (Anjos et al, ). In pitfalls, spatial segregation was not higher than expected, indicating that segregation at baits was not due to spatial heterogeneity or territoriality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche differentiation in rainforest ant communities across three continents

Grevé

Houadria

Andersen

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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A central prediction of niche theory is that biotic communities are structured by niche differentiation arising from competition. To date, there have been numerous studies of niche differentiation in local ant communities, but little attention has been given to the macroecology of niche differentiation, including the extent to which particular biomes show distinctive patterns of niche structure across their global ranges. We investigated patterns of niche differentiation and competition in ant communities in tropical rainforests, using different baits reflecting the natural food spectrum. We examined the extent of temporal and dietary niche differentiation and spatial segregation of ant communities at five rainforest sites in the neotropics, paleotropics, and tropical Australia. Despite high niche overlap, we found significant dietary and temporal niche differentiation in every site. However, there was no spatial segregation among foraging ants at the community level, despite strong competition for preferred food resources. Although sucrose, melezitose, and dead insects attracted most ants, some species preferentially foraged on seeds, living insects, or bird feces. Moreover, most sites harbored more diurnal than nocturnal species. Overall niche differentiation was strongest in the least diverse site, possibly due to its lower number of rare species. Both temporal and dietary differentiation thus had strong effects on the ant assemblages, but their relative importance varied markedly among sites. Our analyses show that patterns of niche differentiation in ant communities are highly idiosyncratic even within a biome, such that a mechanistic understanding of the drivers of niche structure in ant communities remains elusive.

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Extrafloral‐nectaries and interspecific aggressiveness regulate day/night turnover of ant species foraging for nectar onBionia coriacea

Cited by 50 publications

References 67 publications

Defining Habitat Use by the Parabiotic Ants Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) and Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003

Defining Habitat Use by the Parabiotic Ants Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) and Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003

Nectar quality affects ant aggressiveness and biotic defense provided to plants

Niche differentiation in rainforest ant communities across three continents

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