Macroevolutionary patterns in the origin of mutualisms involving ants

Oliver, T. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4169-7313, Leather, S. R. and Cook, J. M. (2008) Macroevolutionary patterns in the origin of mutualisms involving ants. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 21 (6). pp. 1597-1608. ISSN 1010-061X doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01600.x

Abstract/Summary

Ants are a diverse and abundant insect group that form mutualistic associations with a number of different organisms from fungi to insects and plants. Here, we use a phylogenetic approach to identify ecological factors that explain macroevolutionary trends in the mutualism between ants and honeydew-producing Homoptera. We also consider association between ant-Homoptera, ant-fungi and ant-plant mutualisms. Homoptera-tending ants are more likely to be forest dwelling, polygynous, ecologically dominant and arboreal nesting with large colonies of 10(4)-10(5) individuals. Mutualistic ants (including those that garden fungi and inhabit ant-plants) are found in under half of the formicid subfamilies. At the genus level, however, we find a negative association between ant-Homoptera and ant-fungi mutualisms, whereas there is a positive association between ant-Homoptera and ant-plant mutualisms. We suggest that species can only specialize in multiple mutualisms simultaneously when there is no trade-off in requirements from the different partners and no redundancy of rewards.