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SPIDER–ANT SYMBIOSIS: COTINUSA SPP. (ARANEIDA: SALTICIDAE) AND TAPINOMA MELANOCEPHALUM (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Merle Shepard
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research and Education Center, Sanford, Florida
Flash Gibson
Affiliation:
Biology Department, Eastern Washington State College, Cheney, Washington

Abstract

Salticid spiders of the genus Continusa were present in 61% of the nests of dolichoderine ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius)) which build their nests on the undersides of leaves in the lower forest canopy on the Osa peninsula of Costa Rica. Cutting and displacement of the supporting leaves caused abandonment of 80% of the nests within 4 days and experiments carried out by marking and displacing the spider indicated their tenacity to the ant nest. T. melanocephalum nests which contained spiders were more successful in terms of the brood to adult ratio.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1972

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References

Wilson, E. O. 1971. The insect societies. The Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 548 pp.Google Scholar