Geographic Mosaic of Plant Evolution: Extrafloral Nectary Variation Mediated by Ant and Herbivore Assemblages
Fig 4
Relationship between ant traits (ant size and recruitment) and the average abundance of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) and herbivory on plants visited by each ant species.
Each point within the graphs represents one ant species (N = 15 ant species). The ant list is presented in decreasing order according to the ant occurrence on EFNs, highlighting the most important ant species in bold and numbered from 1 to 6 in the graphs. A: Smaller ant species generally had higher recruitment than bigger ants (F(1,13) = 3.59; p = 0.06). B: Ant species with lower recruitment generally visited plants with higher amounts of EFNs (F(1,13) = 3.06; p = 0.04). C: Smaller ant species generally visited plants with fewer EFNs (F(1,13) = 2.38; p = 0.055). D: Plants that suffered less damage were generally visited by ants species with higher recruitment (F(1,13) = 3.72; p = 0.06). E: Variation of ant size across ant species was not directly related to herbivory (F(1,13) = 0.32; p = 0.58). All analyses are performed using jackknife procedures.