Ant-Plant Mutualism in Hawai‘i? Invasive Ants Reduce Flower Parasitism but Also Exploit Floral Nectar of the Endemic Shrub Vaccinium reticulatum (Ericaceae)

Simple item page
dc.contributor.author Bleil, Richard
dc.contributor.author Bluthgen, Nico
dc.contributor.author Junker, Robert R.
dc.date.accessioned 2013-08-10T00:26:39Z
dc.date.available 2013-08-10T00:26:39Z
dc.date.issued 2011-07
dc.description v. ill. 23 cm.
dc.description Also available through BioOne: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2984/65.3.311
dc.description Quarterly
dc.description.abstract Ants had been absent from the Hawaiian Islands before their human introduction. Today they cause severe alterations of ecosystems and displace native biota. Due to their strong demand on carbohydrate-rich resources, they often exploit floral nectar of native Hawaiian plant species with largely unknown consequences for the plants’ reproduction. We examined effects of flower-visiting invasive ants on reproduction of the endemic shrub Vaccinium reticulatum (Ericaceae) in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Ant densities in flowers were high and floral nectar was excessively exploited, which may lead to a reduced visitation rate of pollinators. However, the ants’ presence on flowers strongly reduced flower parasitism by caterpillars of the introduced plume moth Stenoptilodes littoralis and thus decreased the loss of flowers and buds. This is, to our knowledge, the first documented mutualism between invasive ants and an endemic plant species in Hawai‘i. Developed fruits of this partly self-incompatible plant, however, bore relatively low proportions of viable seeds, irrespective of the experimentally controlled visitor spectrum of the flowers. This may indicate that ants do not function as pollinators and that effective pollinators (probably Hylaeus bees) are scant or absent.
dc.format.extent 10 pages
dc.identifier.citation Bleil R, Bluthgen N, Junker R. Ant-Plant Mutualism in Hawai‘i? Invasive Ants Reduce Flower Parasitism but Also Exploit Floral Nectar of the Endemic Shrub Vaccinium reticulatum (Ericaceae). Pac Sci 65(3): 291-300.
dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.2984/65.3.311
dc.identifier.issn 0030-8870
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10125/29729
dc.publisher Honolulu, University of Hawaii
dc.relation.ispartofseries vol. 65, no. 3
dc.subject.lcsh Natural history--Periodicals.
dc.subject.lcsh Science--Periodicals
dc.subject.lcsh Natural history--Pacific Area--Periodicals.
dc.title Ant-Plant Mutualism in Hawai‘i? Invasive Ants Reduce Flower Parasitism but Also Exploit Floral Nectar of the Endemic Shrub Vaccinium reticulatum (Ericaceae)
dc.type Article
dc.type.dcmi Text
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
vol65n3-291-300.pdf
Size:
314.85 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Pacific Science, Volume 65, Number 3, 2011