<i>Aphis clerodendri</i> Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), attendant ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and associates on <i>Clerodendrum</i> (Verbenaceae) in Australia

Carver, Mary; Blüthgen, Nico; Grimshaw, J. F.; Bellis, Glenn

doi:10.1046/j.1440-6055.2003.00339.x

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Most attended trophobionts were polyphagous, producing honeydew on host plants from several families (including all common associations with Oecophylla ants, although most of their associations with Sextius ‘ kurandae ’ were found on the two legume lianas Entada phaseoloides and Caesalpinia traceyi L. Pedley, Blüthgen and Fiedler 2002). Two specialised plant‐homopteran interactions were common: First, the understorey shrub Clerodendrum traceyi hosted the leaf gall‐forming Aphis clerodendri , which was attended by Paratrechina vaga and Technomyrmex albipes (Carver et al 2003). Second, Syzygium ‘ erythrocalyx ’ trees hosted a tree hopper species that represented the most important trophobiont of Anonychomyrma ants.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom‐up control and co‐occurrence in complex communities: honeydew and nectar determine a rainforest ant mosaic

Blüthgen¹,

Stork²,

Fiedler³

2004

Oikos

204

211

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Blü thgen, N., Stork, N. E. and Fiedler, K. 2004. Bottom-up control and co-occurrence in complex communities: honeydew and nectar determine a rainforest ant mosaic. Á/ Oikos 106: 344 Á/358Complex distribution patterns of species-rich insect communities in tropical rainforests have been intensively studied, and yet we know very little about processes that generate these patterns. We provide evidence for the key role of homopteran honeydew and plant nectar in structuring ant communities in an Australian tropical rainforest canopy and understorey. We also test the ant visitation of these resources against predictions derived from the 'ant-mosaic' hypothesis. Two ant species were highly dominant in terms of territorial behaviour and abundance: Oecophylla smaragdina and Anonychomyrma gilberti . Both dominant ant species monopolised large aggregations of honeydew-producing homopterans. Attended homopteran species were highly segregated between these two ant species. For the use of extrafloral and floral nectar (involving 43 ant species on 48 plant species), partitioning of ant species among plant species and between canopy and understorey was also significant, but less pronounced. In contrast to trophobioses, simultaneous co-occurrence of different nectar foraging ant species on the same plant individuals was frequent (23% of all surveys). While both dominant ant species were mutually exclusive on honeydew and nectar sources, cooccurrence with non-dominant ant species on nectaries was common. The proportion of visits with co-occurrences was low for dominant ants and high for many subordinate species. These findings support the ant mosaic theory. The differential role of honeydew (as a specialised resource for dominant ants) and nectar (as an opportunistic resource for all ants including the co-occurring non-dominant species) provides a plausible structuring mechanism for the Australian canopy ant community studied.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom‐up control and co‐occurrence in complex communities: honeydew and nectar determine a rainforest ant mosaic

Blüthgen¹,

Stork²,

Fiedler³

2004

Oikos

204

211

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“…The habit of feeding on plant exudates Carver et al 2003;Davidson et al 2003Davidson et al , 2004 fulfils the third characteristic mediating the protection mutualism between T. albipes and H. brunonis. T. albipes patrols both flower buds and young leaves in search of EFN.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paradox is easily explained by the fact that EFN activity on inflorescences is itself enhanced during the night and is correlated with the general activity pattern of T. albipes . Although this ant is often a pest tending harmful homopterans on plants (Nechols and Seibert 1985;Carver et al 2003), colonies on H. brunonis rarely tended homopterans, except on a few bud inflorescences from a couple of plants. Perhaps, the plant's EFNs distract ants from tending homopterans, as proposed by Beccera and Venable (1989) and thus confer a selective advantage to the plant in terms of biotic defence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fitness consequences of bearing domatia and having the right ant partner: experiments with protective and non-protective ants in a semi-myrmecophyte

et al. 2005

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The fitness advantage provided by caulinary domatia to myrmecophytes has never been directly demonstrated because most myrmecophytic species do not present any individual variation in the presence of domatia and the removal of domatia from entire plants is a destructive process. The semi-myrmecophytic tree, Humboldtia brunonis (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae), is an ideal species to investigate the selective advantage conferred by domatia because within the same population, some plants are devoid of domatia while others bear them. Several ant species patrol the plant for extra-floral nectar. Fruit production was found to be enhanced in domatia-bearing trees compared to trees devoid of domatia independent of the ant associate. However, this domatium effect was most conspicuous for trees associated with the populous and nomadic ant, Technomyrmex albipes. This species is a frequent associate of H. brunonis, inhabiting its domatia or building carton nests on it. Ant exclusion experiments revealed that T. albipes was the only ant to provide efficient anti-herbivore protection to the leaves of its host tree. Measures of ant activity as well as experiments using caterpillars revealed that the higher efficiency of T. albipes was due to its greater patrolling density and consequent shorter lag time in attacking the larvae. T. albipes also provided efficient anti-herbivore protection to flowers since fruit initiation was greater on ant-patrolled inflorescences than on those from which ants were excluded. We therefore demonstrated that caulinary domatia provide a selective advantage to their host-plant and that biotic defence is potentially the main fitness benefit mediated by domatia. However, it is not the sole advantage. The general positive effect of domatia on fruit set in this ant-plant could reflect other benefits conferred by domatia-inhabitants, which are not restricted to ants in this myrmecophyte, but comprise a large diversity of other invertebrates. Our results indicate that mutualisms enhance the evolution of myrmecophytism.

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“…In the open secondary vegetation, the invasive weed Chromolaena odorata was the most common host of trophobioses. The two aphids (A. gossypii and A. spiraeola) produced leaf pseudogalls (see Carver et al, 2003) on these plants in which they were attended by a broad spectrum of ant species. These two similar aphid species sometimes occurred in mixed associations and were not distinguished in the following association analyses.…”

Section: Associated Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant-hemipteran trophobioses in a Bornean rainforest – diversity, specificity and monopolisation

2006

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Trophobiotic interactions between ants, hemipterans and plants play an important role for all three partners. This study compared a broad spectrum of trophobiotic associations in a tropical rainforest in Sabah, Borneo. We studied partner specifi city, ant recruitment, temporal continuity and monopolisation in 218 trophobioses, comprising 58 ant species, 62 hemipteran and over 31 plant species. The most common associations involved Dinochloa trichogona (Poaceae) with coreids and delphacids in the forest understorey, and the invasive weed Chromolaena odorata (Asteraceae) with Aphis gossypii and A. spiraeola in the open vegetation; both associations were attended by a broad spectrum of ant species. In general, associations between hemipterans and plants were highly and signifi cantly specialised, while ants were more opportunistic in their choices of partners, although partitioning was also significant between ant versus hemipteran species and consequently between ant versus plant species. The number of ant workers increased signifi cantly, but at a declining rate, with the number of hemipterans at a trophobiosis. Most trophobioses (96 %) were only tended by a single ant species at a time and thus effectively monopolised. Occasionally these guards were replaced by another ant species after a few weeks (11 %) or during the night (34 %). In order to test whether other sugar-seeking ants as potential competitors occurred in the vicinity of trophobioses, sugar baits were placed next to the trophobioses, on a different branch of the same plant, and on a neighbouring plant. While the hemipteran-tending ant colony mostly monopolised the nearest sugar bait, the number of ant species on more distant baits was signifi cantly higher. Our results show that ant associations with honeydew-producing hemipterans may be relatively opportunistic at the community level, but highly predictable on a smaller spatio-temporal scale in respect to recruitment to, and long term securing of this important resource.

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Aphis clerodendri Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), attendant ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and associates on Clerodendrum (Verbenaceae) in Australia

Cited by 12 publications

References 1 publication

Bottom‐up control and co‐occurrence in complex communities: honeydew and nectar determine a rainforest ant mosaic

Bottom‐up control and co‐occurrence in complex communities: honeydew and nectar determine a rainforest ant mosaic

The fitness consequences of bearing domatia and having the right ant partner: experiments with protective and non-protective ants in a semi-myrmecophyte

Ant-hemipteran trophobioses in a Bornean rainforest – diversity, specificity and monopolisation

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