Cooperative colony founding alters the outcome of interspecific competition between Amazonian plant-ants

Insectes Sociaux

Volumn 56, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 341-345

  Izzo, T J ^a,b,e   Bruna, E M ^b   Vasconcelos, H L ^c   Inouye, B D ^d  

^a INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE PESQUISAS DA AMAZÔNIA   (Brazil)

^b UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

^c FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF UBERLÂNDIA   (Brazil)

^d FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^e FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF MATO GROSSO   (Brazil)

Author keywords

Myrmecophytes; Pleometrosis

Indexed keywords

ANT; COLONIZATION; COLONY FOUNDING; DISPERSAL; DOMINANCE; HYPOTHESIS TESTING; INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION; MYRMECOPHYTE; NICHE PARTITIONING; QUEEN;

CREMATOGASTER LAEVIS; FORMICIDAE; MAIETA GUIANENSIS; PHEIDOLE MINUTULA;

EID: 70350356468     PISSN: 00201812     EISSN: 14209098     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00040-009-0029-x     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. Benson W.W. 1985. Amazon ant-plants. In: Amazonia (G.T. Prance and T.E. Lovejoy, Eds). Pergamon Press, New York, pp 239-266.
2. Bierregaard R.O., Gascon C., Lovejoy T.E. and Mesquita R. (Eds). 2002. Lessons from Amazonia: the Ecology and Conservation of a Fragmented Forest. Yale University Press, New Haven. 478 pp.
3. Bronstein J.L. 1998. The contribution of ant-plant protection studies to our understanding of mutualism. Biotropica 30: 150-161.
4. Bruna E.M., Vasconcelos H.L. and Heredia S. 2005. The effect of habitat fragmentation on communities of mutualists: Amazonian ants and their host plants. Biol. Cons. 124: 209-216.
5. Dáttilo F.C.W., Izzo T.J, Inouye B.D., Vasconcelos H.L. and Bruna E.M. 2009. Recognition of host plant volatiles by Pheidole minutula Mayr (Myrmicinae), an Amazonian ant-plant specialist. Biotropica 41 (in press).
6. Davidson D.W., Snelling R.R. and Longino J.T. 1989. Competition among ants for myrmecophytes and the significance of plant trichomes. Biotropica 21: 64-73.
7. Feldhaar H., Fiala B. and Gadau J. 2005. A shift in colony founding behaviour in the obligate plant-ant Crematogaster (Decacrema) morphospecies 2. Insect. Soc.52: 222-230.
8. Fonseca C.R. 1999. Amazonian ant-plant interactions and the nesting space limitation hypothesis. J. Trop. Ecol. 18: 807-825.
9. Frederickson M.E. 2006. The reproductive phenology of an Amazonian ant species reflects the seasonal availability of its nest sites. Oecologia149: 418-427.
10. Heil M. and McKey D. 2003. Protective ant-plant interactions as model systems in ecological and evolutionary research. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 34: 425-453.
11. Hölldobler B. and Wilson E.O. 1990. The Ants. Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass. 732 pp.
12. Izzo T.J. and Vasconcelos H.L. 2002. Cheating the cheater: domatia loss minimizes the effects of ant castration in an Amazonian ant-plant. Oecologia133: 200-205.
13. Janzen D.H. 1966. Coevolution of a mutualisms between ants and acacias in Central America. Evolution20: 249-275.
14. Janzen D.H. 1967. Interaction of the bulls-horn acacia (Acacia cornigera L.) with an ant inhabitant (Pseudomyrmex ferruginea F. Smith) in eastern Mexico. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull.47: 315-558.
15. Nery A.S. and Vasconcelos H.L. 2003. Growth and survival of incipient ant-colonies in two Amazonian ant-plants: effects of host plant, habitat, and mode of colony founding (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 42: 151-162.
16. Palmer T.M. 2004. Wars of attrition: colony size determines competitive outcomes in a guild of African acacia ants. Anim. Behav.68: 993-1004.
17. Palmer T.M., Young T.P. and Stanton M.L. 2002. Burning bridges: priority effects and the persistence of a competitively subordinate acacia-ant in Laikipia, Kenya. Oecologia133: 372-379.
18. Rico-Gray V. and Oliveira P.S. 2007. The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 331 pp.
19. Trager M.D. and Bruna E.M. 2006. Effects of plant age, experimental nutrient addition and ant occupancy on herbivory in a neotropical myrmecophyte. J. Ecol. 94: 1156-1163.
20. Tschinkel W.R. and Howard D.F. 1983. Colony founding by pleometrosis in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 12: 103-113.
21. Vasconcelos H.L. 1991. Mutualism between Maieta guianensis Aubl., a myrmecophytic melastome, and one of its ant inhabitants: ant protection against insect herbivores. Oecologia87: 295-298.
22. Vasconcelos H.L. 1993. Ant colonization of Maieta guianensis seedlings, an Amazon ant-plant. Oecologia95: 439-443.
23. Vasconcelos H.L. and Davidson D.W. 2000. Relationship between plant size and ant associates in two Amazonian ant-plants. Biotropica32: 100-111.
24. Yu D.W. and Davidson D.W. 1997. Experimental studies of species-specificity in Cecropia-ant relationships. Ecol. Monogr. 67: 273-294.
25. Yu D.W. and Pierce N.E. 1998. A castration parasite of an ant-plant mutualism. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. B: Biol. Sci.265: 275-282.
26. Yu D.W., Wilson H.B., Frederickson M.E., Palomino W., De la Colina R., Edwards D.P. and Balareso A.A. 2004. Experimental demonstration of species coexistence enabled by dispersal limitation. J. Anim. Ecol. 73: 1102-1114.