A mutualism's indirect costs: The most aggressive plant bodyguards also deter pollinators

Article Abstract:

The hypothesis that aggressive ant bodyguards of plants deter pollinators is investigated and the mechanism by which Ferocactus wislizeni limits conflicts between its pollinators and bodyguards is explored. The ant species most rarely found in flowers showed the strongest aversion to F. wislizeni flower petals suggesting that those structures may include an ant deterrent and also suggests that best bodyguards may indirectly constrain plant reproduction in some settings.

United States

---

Complex interactions on fig trees: Ants capturing parasitic wasps as possible indirect mutualists of the fig-fig wasp interaction

Article Abstract:

The influence of predatory ants on the complex interactions between the plants, pollinators and parasites associated with two dioecious and one monoecious figs species are studied .The consistent influence of the presence of ants in the three cases representing a geographically, ecologically and taxonomically broad samples of figs, demonstrated that ants can be regarded as indirect mutualists of plants and pollinators in the network of complex interactions.

Predation (Biology), Wasps

---

Size constraints and flower abundance determine the number of interactions in a plant-flower visitor web

Article Abstract:

A study on whether flower size parameters set constraints on the morphology of the potential nectar feeding visitors which determine the number of visitor species is illustrated. It involves three possible constraints, the depth and the width of tubular structures hiding the nectar and the size of flower parts that visitors can land on and the role of flower abundance on this relationship.

Netherlands, Analysis, Food and nutrition, Butterflies, Morphological variation

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Status of the world's remaining closed forests: an assessment using satellite data and policy options. Tropical forest biodiversity and the World Heritage Convention
• Abstracts: Gene flow and introgression from domesticated plants into their wild relatives. The population biology of invasive species
• Abstracts: Growth in otter (Lutra lutra) populations in the UK as shown by long-term monitoring. Competition between Eurasian otter Lutra lutra and American mink Mustela vision probed by niche shift
• Abstracts: On the indices of plant-plant competition and their pitfalls. Importance of large and small mammalian herbivores for the plant community structure in the forest tundra ecotone
• Abstracts: Foraging costs and accessibility as determinants of giving-up densities in a swan-pondweed system. Consumer-resource matching in a food chain when both predators and prey are free to move

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.