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Mechanisms of carbohydrate‐fuelled ecological dominance in a tropical rainforest canopy‐foraging ant
Author(s) -
MCGLYNN TERRENCE P.,
PARRA ERICA L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/een.12294
Subject(s) - foraging , biology , canopy , rainforest , ecology , dominance (genetics) , nectar , tropical rainforest , pollen , biochemistry , gene
1. Canopy‐foraging ants have carbohydrate‐rich diets and the stoichiometric excess of carbon may result in energetic allocation decisions that facilitate ecological dominance. 2. If dietary carbohydrates facilitate ecological dominance in canopy ants, then the mechanism for this relationship is unknown. 3. Four hypotheses were posit that may explain how a carbohydrate‐rich diet might facilitate ecological dominance in canopy ants: A ggressive D efense, M etabolic F uel, F oraging S uccess, and P rey A cquisition. 4. To assess these hypotheses, experiments were conducted on the canopy‐foraging bullet ant, P araponera clavata ( F abricius) , an omnivorous species that demonstrates high variability in the relative contribution of carbohydrates to the diets of colonies. 5. No support was found for the A ggressive D efense, M etabolic F uel and P rey A cquisition hypotheses. 6. The F oraging S uccess hypothesis was supported, as the proportion of nectar in the diet predicted the overall foraging success. 7. It was argued that there is no explicit advantage in the exploitation of nectar over other food resources, other than the fact that it is the most accessible food resource in the rainforest canopy.