Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T14:56:55.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Canopy assemblages of ants in a New Guinea rain forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Milan Janda  and
Martina Konečná
Milan Janda*
Affiliation:
Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Martina Konečná
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The ant assemblages in two common tree species in primary lowland forest of New Guinea were explored using direct canopy access and tuna bait traps. The 19 trees investigated were occupied by 21 ant species of which 18 were canopy inhabitants. On average only 3.6 ant species per tree and 3 species per bait were found. Height of bait position was positively related to ant species richness, with the upper parts of the canopy being occupied by the highest number of species. On the other hand, tree species and study site did not have any effect on ant species richness nor on structure of the ant assemblages. Ant species appeared to be distributed randomly and we did not detect any effect of distance on similarity of ant assemblage occurring on the trees. The dominant species (Crematogaster polita) had certain negative effects on the presence of some species at food sources co-occurring at the same tree, but it did co-occur with the other ants to some extent as well. The majority of species found in the canopy were generalist omnivores (depending mainly on trophobionts or plant exudates).

Keywords

bait trapscanopydominanceforaging activityinterspecific interactions
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 83 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ALBRECHT, M. & GOTELLI, N. J. 2001. Spatial and temporal niche partitioning in grassland ants. Oecologia 126:134–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ANDERSEN, A. N. 1992. Regulation of “momentary” diversity by dominant species in exceptionally rich ant communities of the Australian seasonal tropics. American Naturalist 140:401–420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ARMBRECHT, I., JIMENEZ, E., ALVAREZ, G., ULLOA-CHACON, P. & ARMBRECHT, H. 2001. An ant mosaic in the Colombian rain forests of Choco (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 37:491–509.Google Scholar
BASSET, Y., ABERLENC, H. P., BARRIOS, H., CURLETTI, G., BERENGER, J. M., VESCO, J. P., CAUSSE, P., HAUG, A., HENNION, A. S., LESOBRE, L., MARQUES, F. & O'MEARA, R. 2001. Stratification and diel activity of arthropods in a lowland rainforest in Gabon. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 72:585–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BESTELMEYER, B. T. 2000. The trade-off between thermal tolerance and behavioural dominance in a subtropical South American ant community. Journal of Animal Ecology 69:998–1009.Google Scholar
BESTELMEYER, B. T., AGOSTI, D., ALONSO, L. E., BRANDÃO, C. R. F., BROWN, W. L., DELABIE, J. H. C. & SILVESTRE, R. 2000. Field techniques for the study of ground dwelling ants: an overview, description, and evaluation. Pp. 122–144 in Agosti, D., Majer, J. M., Alonso, L. E. & Schultz, T. R. (eds.). Ants: standard methods for measuring and monitoring biodiversity. Smithsonian Institution, Washington.Google Scholar
BLÜTHGEN, N. & FIEDLER, K. 2002. Interactions between weaver ants Oecophylla smaragdina, homopterans, trees and lianas in an Australian rain forest canopy. Journal of Animal Ecology 71:793–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BLÜTHGEN, N. & FIEDLER, K. 2004. Competition for composition: lessons from nectar-feeding ant communities. Ecology 85:1479–1485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BLÜTHGEN, N. & STORK, N. E. 2007. Ant mosaics in a tropical rainforest in Australia and elsewhere: a critical review. Austral Ecology 32:93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BLÜTHGEN, N., GEBAUER, G. & FIEDLER, K. 2003. Disentangling a rainforest food web using stable isotopes: dietary diversity in a species-rich ant community. Oecologia 137:426–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BRIESE, D. T. & MACAULEY, B. J. 1980. Temporal structure of an ant community in semi-arid Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 5:121–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CAMPOS, R. I. D., SOARES, J. P., MARTINS, R. P. & RIBEIRO, S. P. 2006. Effect of habitat structure on ant assemblages associated to two pioneer tree species. Sociobiology 47:721–737.Google Scholar
CERDA, X., RETANA, J. & CROS, S. 1997. Thermal disruption of transitive hierarchies in Mediterranean ant communities. Journal of Animal Ecology 66:363–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAVIDSON, D. W. 1997. The role of resource imbalances in the evolutionary ecology of tropical arboreal ants. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 61:153–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAVIDSON, D. W., COOK, S. C., SNELLING, R. R. & CHUA, T. H. 2003. Explaining the abundance of ants in lowland tropical rainforest canopies. Science 300:969–972.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DEJEAN, A., CORBARA, B., LEPONCE, M. & ORIVEL, J. 2007. Ants of rainforest canopies: the implications of territoriality and predatory behavior. Functional Ecosystems and Communities 1:105–120Google Scholar
FLOREN, A. & LINSENMAIR, K. E. 1997. Diversity and recolonization dynamics of selected arthropod groups on different tree species in a lowland rainforest in Sabah, with special reference to Formicidae. Pp. 344–381 in Stork, N. E., Adis, J. & Didham, R. K. (eds.). Canopy arthropods. Chapman & Hall, London.Google Scholar
FLOREN, A., BIUN, A. & LINSENMAIR, K. E. 2002. Arboreal ants as key predators in tropical lowland rainforest trees. Oecologia 131:137–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GOTELLI, N. J. 1996. Ant community structure: effects of predatory ant lions. Ecology 77:630–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOTELLI, N. J. 2000. Null model analysis of species co-occurrence patterns. Ecology 81:2606–2621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOTELLI, N. J. & ELLISON, A. M. 2002. Biogeography at a regional scale: determinants of ant species density in New England bogs and forests. Ecology 83:1604–1609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOTELLI, N. J. & ENTSMINGER, G. L. 2005. EcoSim: Null models software for ecology. Version 7. Acquired Intelligence Inc. and Kesey-Bear, Jericho. www.garyentsminger.com/ecosim/index.htmGoogle Scholar
HÖLLDOBLER, B. & WILSON, E. O. 1990. The ants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 732 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JANDA, M. 2007. Ecology and natural history of Melanesian ants. Ph.D. thesis, University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science. České Budějovice, Czech Republic. 124 pp.Google Scholar
KASPARI, M. & YANOVIAK, S. P. 2001. Bait use in tropical litter and canopy ants – evidence of differences in nutrient limitation. Biotropica 33:207–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOLEFF, P., GASTON, K. J. & LENNON, J. J. 2003. Measuring beta diversity for presence and absence data. Journal of Animal Ecology 72:367–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEBRUN, E. G. 2005. Who is the top dog in ant communities? Resources, parasitoids, and multiple competitive hierarchies. Oecologia 142:643–652.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LESTON, D. 1978. A Neotropical ant mosaic. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 71:649–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MAJER, J. D. 1976. The maintenance of the ant mosaic in Ghana cocoa farms. Journal of Applied Ecology 13:123–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MAJER, J. D. 1993. Comparison of the arboreal ant mosaic in Ghana, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Australia – its structure and influence on ant diversity. Pp. 115–141 in LaSalle, J. & Gauld, I. D. (eds.). Hymenoptera and biodiversity. CAB International, Wallingford.Google Scholar
MAJER, J. D., DELABIE, J. H. C. & SMITH, M. R. B. 1994. Arboreal ant community patterns in Brazilian cocoa farms. Biotropica 26:73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MENZEL, F., LINSENMAIR, K. E. & BLÜTHGEN, N. 2008. Selective interspecific tolerance in tropical Crematogaster–Camponotus associations. Animal Behaviour 75:837–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. & BASSET, Y. 1998. Seasonality of sap-sucking insects (Auchenorrhyncha, Hemiptera) feeding on Ficus (Moraceae) in a lowland rain forest in New Guinea. Oecologia 115:514–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V., BASSET, Y., AUGA, J., BOEN, W., DAL, C., DROZD, P., KASBAL, M., ISUA, B., KUTIL, R., MANUMBOR, M. & MOLEM, K. 1999. Predation risk for herbivorous insects on tropical vegetation: a search for enemy free space and time. Australian Journal of Ecology 24:477–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V., MILLER, S. E., BASSET, Y., CIZEK, L., DROZD, P., DARROW, K. & LEPS, J. 2002. Predictably simple: assemblages of caterpillars (Lepidoptera) feeding on rainforest trees in Papua New Guinea. Proceedings of the Royal Society London, B 269:2337–2344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PERRY, D. R. 1978. Method of access into crowns of emergent and canopy trees. Biotropica 10:155–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PFEIFFER, M., HO, C. T. & Teh, C. L. 2008. Exploring arboreal ant mosaics and the impact of exotic “tramp” species (Formicidae) in plantations of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. Ecography 31:21–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROOM, P. M. 1971. The relative distributions of ant species in Ghana's cocoa farms. Journal of Animal Ecology 40:735–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROOM, P. M. 1975. Relative distributions of ant species in cocoa plantations in Papua New Guinea. Journal of Applied Ecology 12:47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SANDERS, N. J., GOTELLI, N. J., HELLER, N. E. & GORDON, D. M. 2003. Community disassembly by an invasive species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 100:2474–2477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SANDERS, N. J., CRUTSINGER, G. M., DUNN, R. R., MAJER, J. D. & DELABIE, J. H. C. 2007. An ant mosaic revisited: dominant ant species disassemble arboreal ant communities but co-occur randomly. Biotropica 39:422–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHONBERG, L. A., LONGINO, J. T., NADKARNI, N. M., YANOVIAK, S. P. & GERING, J. C. 2004. Arboreal ant species richness in primary forest, secondary forest, and pasture habitats of a tropical montane landscape. Biotropica 36:402–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SHATTUCK, S. O. 1999. Australian ants: their biology and identification. CSIRO, Collingwood. 226 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STONE, L. & ROBERTS, A. 1990. The checkerboard score and species distributions. Oecologia 85:74–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
STORK, N. E. 1991. The composition of the arthropod fauna of Bornean lowland rain forest trees. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:161–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TER BRAAK, C. J. F. & PRENTICE, I. C. 1988. A theory of gradient analysis. Advances in Ecological Research 18:271–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TER BRAAK, C. J. F. & ŠMILAUER, P. 1998. Canoco reference manual and user's guide to Canoco for Windows: software for Canonical community ordination version 4.0. Microcomputer Power, Ithaca. 500 pp.Google Scholar
TOBIN, J. E. 1994. Ants as primary consumers: diet and abundance in Formicidae. Pp. 279–307 in Hunt, J. H. & Nalepa, C. A. (eds.). Nourishment and evolution in insect societies. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
TOKESHI, M. 1999. Species coexistence: ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 454 pp.Google Scholar
TSUJI, K., HASYIM, A., NAKAMURA, H. & NAKAMURA, K. 2004. Asian weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina, and their repelling of pollinators. Ecological Research 19:669–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WAGNER, D. 1997. The influence of ant nests on Acacia seed production, herbivory and soil nutrients. Journal of Ecology 85:83–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILSON, E. O. 1959. Patchy distributions of ant species in New Guinea rain forests. Psyche 65:26–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YANOVIAK, S. P. & KASPARI, M. 2000. Community structure and the habitat templet: ants in tropical forest canopy and litter. Oikos 89:259–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar