Life Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Effects Of Ant-Hemipteran Mutualisms On The Invertebrate Community Structure And Their Host Plant, Honey Mesquite (Prosopis Glandulosa), Nabil Nasseri

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Ants are ubiquitous in most communities and many form opportunistic mutualisms with honeydew-producing hemipterans (e.g. treehoppers). Hemipterans excrete honeydew, a carbohydrate rich substance, that ants harvest and, in return, ants protect their honeydew-producing partners from parasitoids, predators, and competitors. Given the efficacy of tending ants in removing hemipteran antagonists, and the strong roles that ants play within their communities as predators, competitors, and seed dispersers, surprisingly little is known of the effects of ant-hemipteran mutualisms (AHM) on the invertebrate communities in which they are embedded or on the plants that host AHM. Using observational and manipulative field experiments, I examined …