10.5061/DRYAD.P3Q2RQ1
Valdés, Alicia
Stockholm University
Ehrlén, Johan
Stockholm University
Data from: Resource overlap and dilution effects shape host plant use in a
myrmecophilous butterfly
Dryad
dataset
2019
spatial variation
butterflies
Phengaris alcon
Myrmica spp.
resource use
myrmecophily
Gentiana pneumonanthe
2019-01-30T22:33:52Z
2019-01-30T22:33:52Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12952
589075 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. The effects of consumers on fitness of resource organisms are a complex
function of the spatio-temporal distribution of the resources, consumer
functional responses and trait preferences, and availability of other
resources. 2. The ubiquitous variation in the intensity of species
interactions has important consequences for the ecological and
evolutionary dynamics of natural populations. Nevertheless, little is
known about the processes causing this variation and their operational
scales. Here, we examine how variation in the intensity of a
consumer-resource interaction is related to resource timing, resource
density and abundance of other resources. 3. Using the butterfly consumer
Phengaris alcon and its two sequential resources, the host plant Gentiana
pneumonanthe and the host ants Myrmica spp., we investigated how butterfly
egg-laying depended on focal host plant phenology, density and phenology
of neighboring host plants and host ant abundance. 4. Butterflies
preferred plants that simultaneously maximized the availability of both
larval resources in time and space, i.e., they chose early-flowering
plants that were of higher nutritional quality for larvae where host ants
were abundant. Both the probability of oviposition and the number of eggs
were lower in plant individuals with a high neighbor density than in more
isolated plants, and this dilution effect was stronger when neighbors
flowered early. 5. Our results show that plant-herbivore interactions
simultaneously depend on the spatio-temporal distribution of a focal
resource, and on the small-scale spatial variation in the abundance of
other herbivore resources. Given that consumers have negative effects on
fitness and prefer certain timing of the resource organisms, this implies
that processes acting at the levels of individuals, populations and
communities simultaneously contribute to variation in consumer-mediated
natural selection.
Data on Gentiana pneumonanthe plant phenology, neighbor density and
phenology and number of eggs of Phengaris alcondata_plants.txtData on
abundances of ants in a meadow occupied by a population of Gentiana
pneumonanthedata_ants.txt
Sweden