Survivorship of an ant-tended membracid as a function of ant recruitment.

摘要: I used a host-visitor modeling framework to examine the interaction between treehopper Publilia concava and ants in genus Formica. In particular, tested functional relationship ant tending, spatial distribution of treehoppers, density. The per-capita density at each host plant was decreasing function density, distance from nest neighborhood treehoppers. Treehopper survivorship proportional duration tending. Consequently, treehoppers low-density aggregations on isolated plants near received maximum benefit Treehoppers tended by Formica integra were abandoned as summer progressed, although many these re-colonized other species ants. While F. ultimately all with fewer initial first. Results present study are consistent previous findings suggesting that patterns density-dependent for homopterans recruitment response Additionally, results suggest tradeoff maximizing persistence or probability ant-tending minimizing competition when tended. general, models mutualism may provide theoretical understanding conditional outcomes ant-homopteran, mutualisms.