We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
The distribution of the arboreal ant community plus a termite species of the genus Nasutitermes was inventoried on 938 red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle L., trees in a completely flooded mangrove forest of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Colonies sheltered in dry hollow branches of the trees and the pseudobulbs of the epiphytic orchid, Myrmecophila christinae. Two size classes of dry hollow tree branches were categorized in order to test differences in ant distribution. As some trees remained unoccupied by either an ant or a termite colony, we deduced that the competition for nesting sites was low. Differences in the composition of the ant community corresponded to the nature of the shelters (i.e. diameter of the hollow branches or orchid pseudobulbs). The ant fauna was richer in the large dry hollow branches of R. mangle than in the smaller ones, with certain ant species belonging to the subfamilies Ponerinae and Formicinae being significantly more frequent in the large dry hollow branches than in the small ones. Cephalotes and Pseudomyrmex were the most frequent ant genera inhabiting the dry branches of R. mangle, while Dolichoderus bispinosus was the most frequent ant species inhabiting the orchid pseudobulbs. Arboreal Nasutitermes sp. selected mostly the orchid pseudobulbs and thus indirectly interfered with ant nest-site selection. Our results highlight niche differentiation through the selection of nest sites among different types of shelter.
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.