Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Environ Entomol. 2022 Oct 21;51(5):1040-1047. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvac058.
The ant communities on coffee farms in the West/Central Mountains of Puerto Rico are composed of mainly invasive species, although many have a long history of occupation and are effectively naturalized. The ecological forces that maintain such communities are thus of interest, and are evidently related to the spatial patterns in which they inevitably occur. Furthermore, the spatial patterns in which members of the native ant community forage almost certainly include limitations related to the structure of the networks of subterranean foraging tunnels that extend from the nest mounds of Solenopsis invicta. Here we explore some details of that structure. We ask, what is the pattern of foraging exit holes and the gaps between them, and how does that pattern change from farm to farm and from time to time? We encounter typical underground foraging trails punctuated by foraging exits, which, we propose, create a structure above ground of relatively small foraging exits in a matrix of effective foraging gaps. This pattern varies from nest to nest and farm to farm. Other ant species clearly occupy those gaps and seem to gain some of their resilience in the system from this peculiarity of S. invicta's foraging area structure.
波多黎各中西部山区咖啡农场的蚂蚁群落主要由入侵物种组成，尽管其中许多已经有很长的占领历史，并且已经有效地归化。因此，维持这些群落的生态力量很有趣，而且显然与它们不可避免地出现的空间模式有关。此外，本地蚂蚁群落觅食的空间模式几乎肯定包括与从 Solenopsis invicta 的蚁丘延伸的地下觅食隧道网络的结构有关的限制。在这里，我们探讨了该结构的一些细节。我们问，觅食出口孔及其之间的间隙的模式是什么，以及这种模式如何从一个农场到另一个农场以及随时间变化？我们遇到了典型的地下觅食轨迹，其中有觅食出口点缀，我们提出，这在相对较小的觅食出口的基质中创建了一个地上结构，这些出口在有效的觅食间隙中。这种模式在巢与巢之间以及农场与农场之间变化。其他蚂蚁物种显然占据了这些间隙，并从这种入侵物种的觅食区结构的特殊性中获得了一些系统弹性。
