Work

Explaining the Abundance of Ants in Lowland Tropical Rainforest Canopies

Year: 2003

Type: article

Abstract: The extraordinary abundance of ants in tropical rainforest canopies has led to speculation that numerous arboreal ant taxa feed principally as "herbivores" of plant and insect exudates. Based on nitrogen (N) isotope ratios of plants, known herbivores, arthropod predators, and ants from Amazonia and Borneo, we find that many arboreal ant species obtain little N through predation and scavenging. Microsymbionts of ants and their hemipteran trophobionts might play key roles in the nutrition of taxa specializing on N-poor exudates. For plants, the combined costs of biotic defenses and herbivory by ants and tended Hemiptera are substantial, and forest losses to insect herbivores vastly exceed current estimates.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1082074

Authors: Diane W. Davidson, Steven C. Cook, Roy R. Snelling, Tock H. Chua

Institutions: Universiti Brunei Darussalam, University of Utah, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Language: English

Topic: Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior

Subfield: Insect Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Life on land

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2021080256