Plant‐derived differences in the composition of aphid honeydew and their effects on colonies of aphid‐tending ants

Pringle, Elizabeth G.; Novo, Alexandria; Ableson, Ian; Barbehenn, Raymond V.; Vannette, Rachel L.

doi:10.1002/ece3.1277

Cited by 52 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Resource differences between flooded and unflooded forest could cascade up to arboreal ant biomass via at least four non‐mutually exclusive pathways: (1) higher hemipteran biomass on high‐nutrient growth (McNeill and Southwood ); (2) higher nutrients in tree or hemipteran exudates (Douglas ); (3) lower secondary metabolites in tree or hemipteran exudates (Pringle et al. ); and/or (4) higher carbohydrate availability caused by canopy heterogeneity (Ribeiro et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arboreal ant abundance tracks primary productivity in an Amazonian whitewater river system

et al. 2019

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Little is known about consumer productivity in the tropics despite the key feedbacks that animals impose on primary productivity. In the Amazon basin, seasonally flooded and unflooded forests exist side by side, and ants (Formicidae) dominate animal biomass. Although flooding has a direct negative effect on soil‐dwelling ants, it is less clear whether flooding has indirect effects on arboreal ants via associated changes in tree communities. To test whether seasonal inundation by whitewater affects arboreal ants, we investigated ant communities in adjacent flooded and unflooded forests along a major whitewater river in central‐western Amazonia. Whitewater‐flooded forest exhibits higher primary productivity than unflooded forest. We thus hypothesized that forest type would affect the productivity and the foraging traits of arboreal ants and that these changes would be mediated by increases in plant‐derived food for ants in flooded forest. We compared ant and plant communities between flooded‐ and unflooded‐forest transects along the Juruá River in Amazonas, Brazil. We collected, identified, and counted terrestrial and arboreal ants, and we measured ant traits with putative relationships to foraging strategy. We also identified plant stems to characterize the abundance of ant food rewards. Flooding negatively affected the diversity and abundance of terrestrial ants but did not change the diversity of arboreal ants. Arboreal ants were more abundant and exhibited higher biomass in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. Arboreal ant traits also suggested that ants may rely more heavily on plant‐derived food in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. These differences were associated with a higher abundance of plant stems predicted to contain ant food rewards in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. Our results indicate that the productivity of arboreal ants is affected by that of the underlying forest. Such effects may be mediated by the predominantly herbivorous foraging strategy of canopy ants, which would link ant populations closely to primary production and stoichiometry. Given ants’ important functional roles, these differences in ant productivity between forest types may have consequences for other arthropods and feedbacks to plants throughout the Amazon basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arboreal ant abundance tracks primary productivity in an Amazonian whitewater river system

et al. 2019

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“…), even though ants may have suffered negative effects from cardenolide consumption in the latter case (Pringle et al. ). Our results suggest that F. podzolica is able to detect cardenolides in honeydew and to adjust its tending behavior in response to this unfavorable resource.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant chemical defense indirectly mediates aphid performance via interactions with tending ants

Züst

Agrawal

2017

Ecology

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Abstract. The benefits of mutualistic interactions are often highly context dependent. We studied the interaction between the milkweed aphid Aphis asclepiadis and a tending ant, Formica podzolica. Although this interaction is generally considered beneficial, variation in plant genotype may alter it from mutualistic to antagonistic. Here we link the shift in strength and relative benefit of the ant-aphid interaction to plant genotypic variation in the production of cardenolides, a class of toxic defensive chemicals. In a field experiment with highly variable genotypes of the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), we show that plant cardenolides, especially polar forms, are ingested by aphids and excreted in honeydew proportionally to plant concentrations without directly affecting aphid performance. Ants consume honeydew, and aphids that excreted high amounts of cardenolides received fewer ant visits, which in turn reduced aphid survival. On at least some plant genotypes, aphid numbers per plant were reduced in the presence of ants to levels lower than in corresponding ant-exclusion treatments, suggesting antagonistic ant behavior. Although cardenolides appear ineffective as direct plant defenses against aphids, the multi-trophic context reveals an ant-mediated negative indirect effect on aphid performance and population dynamics.

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“…Microbial symbionts have in fact recently been suggested to mediate ant -hemipteran mutualisms [17]. Because there is a potentially strong feedback loop among plant chemistry, hemipteran honeydew, and the quantity and quality of ant defensive behaviour [18], which may be modified by the insectassociated microbes, microbial symbionts may also play key roles in the eco-evolutionary outcomes of ant -plant protective mutualisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community analysis of microbial sharing and specialization in a Costa Rican ant–plant–hemipteran symbiosis

Pringle

Moreau

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Ants have long been renowned for their intimate mutualisms with trophobionts and plants and more recently appreciated for their widespread and diverse interactions with microbes. An open question in symbiosis research is the extent to which environmental influence, including the exchange of microbes between interacting macroorganisms, affects the composition and function of symbiotic microbial communities. Here we approached this question by investigating symbiosis within symbiosis. Ant–plant–hemipteran symbioses are hallmarks of tropical ecosystems that produce persistent close contact among the macroorganism partners, which then have substantial opportunity to exchange symbiotic microbes. We used metabarcoding and quantitative PCR to examine community structure of both bacteria and fungi in a Neotropical ant–plant–scale-insect symbiosis. Both phloem-feeding scale insects and honeydew-feeding ants make use of microbial symbionts to subsist on phloem-derived diets of suboptimal nutritional quality. Among the insects examined here, Cephalotes ants and pseudococcid scale insects had the most specialized bacterial symbionts, whereas Azteca ants appeared to consume or associate with more fungi than bacteria, and coccid scale insects were associated with unusually diverse bacterial communities. Despite these differences, we also identified apparent sharing of microbes among the macro-partners. How microbial exchanges affect the consumer-resource interactions that shape the evolution of ant–plant–hemipteran symbioses is an exciting question that awaits further research.

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Plant‐derived differences in the composition of aphid honeydew and their effects on colonies of aphid‐tending ants

Cited by 52 publications

References 66 publications

Arboreal ant abundance tracks primary productivity in an Amazonian whitewater river system

Arboreal ant abundance tracks primary productivity in an Amazonian whitewater river system

Plant chemical defense indirectly mediates aphid performance via interactions with tending ants

Community analysis of microbial sharing and specialization in a Costa Rican ant–plant–hemipteran symbiosis

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