Behavioural changes in the city: The common black garden ant defends aphids more aggressively in urban environments.

ABSTRACT: Urbanisation alters biodiversity patterns and threatens to disrupt mutualistic interactions. Aside from pollination, however, little is known about how mutualisms change in cities. Our study aimed to assess how urbanisation affects the protective mutualism between ants and aphids, investigating potential behavioural changes in mutualistic ants and their implications for aphids in urban environments. To do so, we studied the protective mutualism between the pink tansy aphid (Metopeurum fuscoviride) and the black garden ant (Lasius niger) along an urbanisation gradient in Berlin, Germany. In nine locations along this gradient, we measured aphid colony dynamics and proxies for parasitism, quantified the investment of ants in tending aphids and conducted behavioural assays to tes

SUBMITTER: Gaber H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11221068 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature