Cohabitation and niche overlap in the occupation of twigs by arthropods in the leaf litter of Brazilian Atlantic Forest
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Insectes Sociaux
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Cohabitation and niche overlap in the occupation of twigs by arthropods in the leaf litter of Brazilian Atlantic Forest T. T. Fernandes1 · W. Dáttilo2 · R. R. Silva3 · P. Luna2 · A. B. Braz1 · M. S. C. Morini1 Received: 1 December 2018 / Revised: 20 January 2020 / Accepted: 28 January 2020 © International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) 2020
Abstract In tropical forests, twigs are the nesting resources most frequently occupied by ants in the leaf litter. During occupation, this resource may be shared among different arthropods, such as ants or non-ant arthropods, but the mechanisms that promote cohabitation in this context are poorly known. In this study, we examined if twig structure influences species cohabitation. Additionally, we calculated co-occurrence and niche overlap metrics for ant species and non-ant arthropods occupying the same twigs in the leaf litter. We collected 52 species of ants and 82 morphospecies of non-ant arthropods inside 575 twigs from fragments of Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Thirty-six ant species cohabited with non-ant arthropods, which were primarily Isopoda and Coleoptera. We observed that the twigs most commonly shared by ants and non-ant arthropods were wider, longer, and had a larger number of holes. We also found that cohabiting ants and non-ant arthropods had higher co-occurrence and niche overlap scores. We suggest that twig diameter is an important factor determining occupation by ants and other arthropods. When the twig is occupied by more than one ant species, our results show that niche overlap and cohabitation with non-ant arthropods are less common. We conclude that examining twig structure is important to better understand arthropod species cohabitation in leaf litter twigs and to study coexistence in ant assemblages that use twigs. Keywords Arboreal · Formicidae · Litter nest · Rainforest · Dead wood
Introduction The leaf litter represents an essential habitat that harbors many invertebrate assemblages and is fundamental for the development and life cycles of numerous arthropods (Silva and Silvestre 2004). Arthropods are the most prevalent organisms in the leaf litter (Morais et al. 2010), and ants are among the most diverse and abundant organisms in this Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-020-00753-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * M. S. C. Morini [email protected] 1
Laboratório de Mirmecologia do Alto Tietê, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, Rua Dr. Cândido Xavier de Almeida e Souza, 200, Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, CP 91070 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
3
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Ciências da Terra e Ecologia, Avenida Perimetral, 1901 ‑ Terra Firme, Belém, Pará, Brazil
habitat (Longino et al. 2002), where up to 35 species coexist within only 1 m2 (Silva and Brandão 2010). They are foun
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