부산대학교 도서관

To verify if these ants selected their host plants, for each plant species sheltering an I N. goeldii i -initiated ant garden, we compared its proportion of plants to the same proportion for other species sheltering ant gardens using Pearson's chi-squared test. Common to other ant garden ants, this behavior seems genetically determined because these compounds are not attractive to other ant species (Corbara, [3]; Orivel & Leroy, [14]; Youngstead et al., [16]). Keywords: ant gardens; ant-plant relationships; conservation; French Guiana; host trees EN ant gardens ant-plant relationships conservation French Guiana host trees 1 5 5 01/04/23 20230101 NES 230101 From the Equator to subpolar areas, ants are very abundant, diverse, and ecologically dominant, occupying terrestrial environments from the soil to the crowns of large trees. Because ant gardens represent one of the most unique forms of an ant-plant association, they need to be preserved because the epiphytes benefit from the three main advantages of ant-plant mutualisms (i.e., dispersion, protection from enemies, and food) while the ant nest is structurally secured. [Extracted from the article]