Hashim, Rosli and Maschwitz, U. and Moog, J. and Atzinger, K. (2009) Do tenants always pay their rent? the asian ant-plant pometia pinnata (sapindaceae) and its leaf domatia provide free access to generalist ants. Asian Myrmecology, 2 (1). pp. 17-32. ISSN 19851944,
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The tree Pometia pinnata Forst. forma glabra (Bl.) Jacobs is an ant-plant that provides lodging (leaf domatia) and food (extrafloral nectar, excretions of coccids) for ants. The leaf domatia are formed by two pairs of strongly modified basal leaflets. In total, 63 ant species from 18 genera and 4 subfamilies were encountered in the domatia of the host in the study area (Ulu Gombak, Malaysia). We found that the ant/ Pometia relationship has two stages: (i) an early 'myrmecophilic' phase of juvenile, domatia-free plants, and (ii) a 'myrmecophytic' phase of older plants in which ants nest in domatia. In the myrmecophilic stage, our short-term experiment revealed a significant greater loss of young leaflets when ants were excluded than on control plants to which ants had access; however, the area of remaining leaf was not different between treatment and control. Similar ambiguous effects were observed in the myrmecophytic stage: a snapshot census revealed no significant difference in the standing level of leaf herbivore damage between branches with and without nesting ants. However, our survey indicated that ant species differed in the protection provided to their host. Our data also suggest that presence of nesting ants substantially reduces damage to the leaf rachis. © J. Moog, K. Atzinger, Rosli Hashim & U. Maschwitz.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Additional Information: | Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Ant-plant interaction, Conditional outcome, Leaf domatia, Lepisanthes, Malaysia, Myrmecophyte, Pometia, Protection mutualism, Se asia, Coccoidea, Formicidae, Sapindaceae |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Institute of Biological Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Miss Malisa Diana |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Sep 2013 01:39 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jan 2019 08:58 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/8323 |
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