Journal
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Volume 97, Issue 1, Pages 90-97Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2008.01188.x
Keywords
Allomerus decemarticulatus; exclusion filters; Hirtella physophora; horizontal transmission; host recognition; mutualism
Categories
Funding
- Programme Amazonie II of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Programme Convergence
- European Community
- French Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR-06-JCJC-0109-01]
- ESF-Eurocores Programme TECT
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In the understory of pristine Guianese forests, the myrmecophyte Hirtella physophora almost exclusively shelters colonies of the plant-ant Allomerus decemarticulatus in its leaf pouches. We experimentally tested three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses concerning phenomena that can determine the species specificity of this association throughout the foundation stage of the colonies: (1) interspecific competition results in the overwhelming presence of A. decemarticulatus queens or incipient colonies; (2) exclusion filters prevent other ant species from entering the leaf pouches; and (3) host-recognition influences the choice of founding queens, especially A. decemarticulatus. Neither interspecific competition, nor the purported exclusion filters that we examined play a major role in maintaining the specificity of this association. Unexpectedly, the plant trichomes lining the domatia appear to serve as construction material during claustral foundation rather than as a filter. Finally, A. decemarticulatus queens are able to identify their host plant from a distance through chemical and/or visual cues, which is rarely demonstrated in studies on obligatory ant-plant associations. We discuss the possibility that this specific host-recognition ability could participate in shaping a compartmentalized plant-ant community where direct competition between ant symbionts is limited. (C) 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 90-97.
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