Colony personality and plant health in the Azteca-Cecropia mutualism

Peter R Marting, William T Wcislo, Stephen C Pratt and Jonathan PruittHandling Editor

Behavioral Ecology, 2018, vol. 29, issue 1, 264-271

Abstract: Deep in the rainforest, Azteca ant colonies gallantly defend their nourishing Cecropia home-trees from leaf-eaters and choking vines. It turns out that some colonies defend more gallantly than others in a suite of behavioral traits measured in the field, revealing that colonies themselves have personalities. Trees that have more active, aggressive colonies have less leaf damage, suggesting that colony personality plays an important role in this intimate mutualism.

Keywords: ant-plant symbiosis; behavioral syndromes; collective behavior; personality; mutualism; social insect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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