Inflorescences of the BromeliadVriesea friburgensisas Nest Sites and Food Resources for Ants and Other Arthropods in Brazil

Abstract

For the first time, the usage of bromeliad inflorescences as nesting sites for ants and other arthropods was studied. Frequencies of occurrence of nests were recorded from hollow stems of dried infructescences of the bromeliadVriesea friburgensison Santa Catarina Island, southern Brazil. Three habitat types were studied: miconietum and two types of restinga, one with low (restinga-low) and one with high vegetation cover (restinga-high). Additionally, flower visitation by ants was examined in restinga-low. Out of 619 infructescences, 33% contained nests. Ants were the most frequent occupants (82–96% of nests), followed by termites (3–18%) and bees (0–0.6%). Species accumulation curves and diversity indices indicate that the diversity of stem-occupying ant species is highest in restinga-low (eight species observed, 18 predicted) and lowest in restinga-high (four observed and predicted). Highest similarity of compositions of infructescence-inhabiting ant species was recorded between miconietum and restinga-high, lowest between restinga-low and restinga-high. Similarity between compositions of inflorescence-visiting and infructescence-inhabiting species in restinga-low was even higher (compared with the cases described in the previous sentence) although 50% of the involved species were present in only one of the samples. Altogether, our results indicate that inflorescences are important resources for ants and other nest-building insects from flowering season to past-fruiting season.

Infructescence size has a larger effect than light environment on the abundance of different arthropod feeding guilds dwelling on the infructescences of a terrestrial bromeliad in a xerophytic forest

“…When some of these ants discover an abundant source of food, such as bromeliad infructescences, many members of the colony congregate to feed on this food resource (Pizo & Oliveira 2000). A similar pattern has been observed for ants that visit the inflorescences of many bromeliad species (Benzing 2000;Schmid et al 2010bSchmid et al , 2014. In general, the Camponotinae are opportunistic and omnivorous species with regard to diet and generalist with regard to nesting (Silvestre et al 2003;Gonçalves et al 2016).…”

One ant's trash is another ant's treasure: Army ant middens provide resources for diverse ant assemblages

“…Unlike Azteca , arboreal ants in the genus Cephalotes were never observed collecting pupal cases. The species of Cephalotes we observed foraging on army ant middens either have poorly described life histories or are considered arboreal herbivores predominantly feeding on nectar, extrafloral nectaries, or inflorescences (Antoniazzi et al., 2020; Gillette et al., 2015; Schmid et al., 2014). The tendency towards herbivory in this genus causes nitrogen limitation, a selective force driving the coevolution of nitrogen‐recycling gut flora that enables some species of Cephalotes to obtain nitrogen from vertebrate wastes including bird feces (Hu et al., 2018).…”

Do bromeliads affect the arboreal ant communities on orange trees in northwestern Costa Rica?

“…Many tropical ants have positive associations with plants, ranging in strength from facultative to obligate [ 14 , 15 ]. Well-known obligate associations include acacia ants of the subgroup Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus , which are only able to nest in domatia of their Vachellia host plant [ 16 , 17 ], as well as Neotropical ant gardens formed by a symbiosis between specific ants and specific plants [ 18 ].…”