Assembléia de artrópodes associada a duas espécies de plantas mirmecófitas amazônicas e suas formigas especialistas
Myrmecophytes are plants that have hollow structures—domatia—that permit ants to nest inside. These ants protect the plants against herbivores, but the effectiveness of such defense varies among the associated ant species. However, some arthropods have developed associations with myrmecophytes in...
| Autor principal: | Lourenço, Waldete Castro |
|---|---|
| Grau: | Dissertação |
| Idioma: | por |
| Publicado em: |
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia - INPA
2020
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| Assuntos: | |
| Acesso em linha: |
https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/12472 http://lattes.cnpq.br/9433905996498282 |
| Resumo: |
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Myrmecophytes are plants that have hollow structures—domatia—that permit ants to
nest inside. These ants protect the plants against herbivores, but the effectiveness of
such defense varies among the associated ant species. However, some arthropods
have developed associations with myrmecophytes in order to take advantage of the
ants’ defensive behavior. Crematogaster laevis (Formicidae: Myrmicinae) is a generalist
ant
species
that
can
inhabit
Maieta
guianensis
e
Tococa
bulifera
(both
Melastomataceae). These two plant species can be found associated with two specific
ant partners: Pheidole minutula (Formicidae: Myrmicinae) in M. guianensis and Azteca
sp. (Formicidae: Dolichodorinae) in T. bullifera. In this study, we compared the effects of
ant presence on anthropod richness and abundance between myrmecophyte and non-
myrmecophyte plants. In addition, we investigated whether in myrmecophytes the
obligate ant species were more effective in defense than the generalist ant species, and
if the ants negatively influenced arthropod richness and abundance in these plants. We
showed that both the presence and the identity of the associated ants influenced the
structure of the arthropod assemblage. It is likely that this result was a function of the
pressure imposed by the ants; the ants that colonize myrmecophytes exclude many
arthropod species but allow some arthropod species to colonize the plant. In these
specific cases there was a greater abundance of some arthropod species that live
exclusively in myrmecophytes, indicating that there is a selective model where
arthropods associated with these plants are a function of the associated ant species.
Our results demonstrate that differences in the efficacy of ant defense are important in
determining and characterizing the arthropods that are able to colonize myrmecophytes.
Different plants with different ants host specific arthropod fauna. These arthropods are
highly specialized and they are strongly dependent of the presence and the stability of
these ant-plant systems. |