Abstract
Three large tropical rain forest ant species (Camponotus gigas, Diacamma intricatum and Odontoponera transversa) in primary lowland dipterocarp forest, Brunei Darussalam, were not found to be significantly negatively associated spatially or in occurrences at baits. Food overlap was found to be high, and time overlap quite low, but not in the species of high food overlap. No evidence of resource partitioning was found, although each species had food preferences. Positive associations are likely to be microhabitat mediated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Literature Cited
ARTHUR, W. 1987. The Niche in Competition and Evolution. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
BRIESE, D. T. 1982. Partitioning of resources amongst seed-harvesters in an ant community in semi-arid Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 7:299–307.
CULVER, D. C. 1974. Species packing in Caribbean and north temperate ant communities. Ecology 55:974–988.
DAVIDSON, D. W. 1977. Species diversity and community organisation in desert seed-eating ants. Ecology 58:711–724.
GAUSE, G. 1934. The Struggle for Existence. Haefner, New York.
GILLER, P. S. 1984. Community Structure and the Niche. Outline studies in ecology. Chapman and Hall, London.
HANSEN, S. R. 1978. Resource utilisation and coexistence of three species of Pogonomyrmex ants in an Upper Sonoran grassland community. Oecologia (Berlin) 35:109–117.
HÖLLDOBLER, B. & WILSON, E.O. 1990. The Ants. Belknap of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
HUTCHINSON, G. E. 1957. Concluding Remarks. Cold Spring Harbor Symposiun on Quantitative Biology 22:415–427.
KEDDY, P. A. 1987. Competition. Population and Community Biology Series. Chapman and Hall, London.
KREBS, C. S. 1989. Ecological Methodology. Harper, New York.
LOTKA, A. J. 1932. The growth of mixed populations: two species competing for a common food supply. Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 22:461–469.
LUDWIG, J. A. & REYNOLDS, J.F. 1988. Statistical Ecology. Wiley, New York.
LYNCH, J. F. 1981. Seasonal, successional and vertical segregation in a Maryland ant community. Oikos 37:183–198.
LYNCH, J. F., BALINSKY, E.C. & VAIL, S.G. 1980. Foraging patterns in three sympatric forest ant species. Ecological Entomology 5:353–371.
MAC ARTHUR, R. H. & LEVINS, R. 1967. The limiting similarity, convergence and divergence of coexisting species. American Naturalist 101:377–385.
MARSH, A. C. 1985. Forager abundance and dietary relationships in a Namib desert ant community. S.-Afr. Tydskr. Dierk 20:197–203.
MAY, R. M. 1975. Some notes on estimating the competition matrix, alpha. Ecology 56:737–741.
MAY, R. M. 1984. Real and apparent patterns in community structure. Pp. 3–18 in Strong, D.R., Simberloff, D., Abele, L.G. & Thistle A.B. (eds). Ecological Communities: Conceptual Issues and the Evidence. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey..
PIANKA, E. R. 1969. Sympatry of desert lizards (Ctenotus) in Western Australia. Ecology 50:1012–1030.
PIANKA, E. R. 1981. Competition and Niche Theory. Pp. 167–196 in May, R.M. (ed.). Theoretical Ecology. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.
PIANKA, E. R. 1983. Evolutionary Ecology. Harper and Row, New York.
PUTMAN, R. J. 1994. Community Ecology. Chapman and Hall, London.
ROOT, R. B. 1967. The niche exploitation pattern of the blue-gray gnatcatcher. Ecological Monographs 37:317–350.
RYTI, T. R. & CASE, T.J. 1992. The role of neighbourhood competition in the spacing and diversity of ant communities. The American Naturalist 139:355–374.
SAVOLAINEN, R. & VEPSÄLÄINEN, K. 1988. A competition hierarchy among boreal ants: impact on resource partitioning and community structure. Oikos 51:135–155.
SCHOENER, T. W. 1974. Resource partitioning in ecological communities. Science 185:27–39.
SCHOENER, T. W. 1986. Resource Partitioning. Pp. 91–126 in Kikkawa, J. & Anderson, D.J. (eds). Community Ecology: Pattern and Process. Blackwell Scientific, Victoria, Australia.
VOLTERRA, V. 1926. Variations and fluctuations of the number of individuals in animal species living together. Reprinted in: Animal Ecology, Chapman, R. N. (ed.). McGraw-Hill, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Levy, R. (1996). Interspecific colony dispersion and niche relations of three large tropical rain forest ant species. In: Edwards, D.S., Booth, W.E., Choy, S.C. (eds) Tropical Rainforest Research — Current Issues. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 74. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1685-2_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1685-2_33
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7255-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1685-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive