The diversity and host specificity of mites associated with ants: the roles of ecological and life history traits of ant
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Insectes Sociaux
RESEARCH ARTICLE
The diversity and host specificity of mites associated with ants: the roles of ecological and life history traits of ant hosts K. U. Campbell • H. Klompen • T. O. Crist
Received: 15 March 2012 / Revised: 17 September 2012 / Accepted: 19 September 2012 / Published online: 9 October 2012 Ó International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) 2012
Abstract Ant nests are stable resource patches that can be utilized by myrmecophiles (organisms living in association with ants). Mites are the most abundant guests in ant nests and are frequently observed in phoretic relationships with ants. Little is known about the effects of ecological and life history characteristics of ant hosts on mite species richness. Previous work focused on mite descriptions and provided little ecological information. Phoretic mites were surveyed for 43 ant species in 273 colonies in Ohio. Mite collections totaled 151 species including representatives of the cohorts Astigmatina and Heterostigmatina, and the suborder Mesostigmata. Most mite species had specific host species and attachment sites on the ants. Statistical analyses showed mite species richness to be highest in colonies of ant species that are (1) populous, (2) large bodied, (3) in the genus Lasius, and (4) established through social parasitism. The species richness was higher for ant species with social parasitism or the genus Lasius, but the relative importance of other host ecological and life history variables differed among mite taxa. Prevalence was greater for female ant alates than
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00040-012-0262-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. K. U. Campbell (&) T. O. Crist Department of Zoology, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA e-mail: [email protected] H. Klompen Acarology Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43212, USA T. O. Crist Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
workers or males and was positively influenced by (1) host size, (2) social parasitism, and (3) the genus Lasius. These results suggest that greater ant diversity also supports a greater diversity of associated mites, but that mite diversity is disproportionately higher in ant species with greater resource availability within nests or those that may facilitate the exchange of mite assemblages among ant nests. Keywords Myrmecophiles Acari Symbiosis Biodiversity Lasius Social parasitism
Introduction Ants are ecosystem engineers, altering the humidity, texture, chemical composition, and temperature of the substrates in which they build their nests (Andersen and Majer, 2004; Boulton et al., 2003; Laakso and Seta¨la¨, 1998; Wagner et al., 1997). This localized change in and around ant colonies increases litter decomposition by nematodes, mites, Collembola, and microorganisms within the nest, as well as the diversity, abundance, and biomass of litter organisms (Beattie and Culver, 1
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