Multiple phenotypic traits as triggers of host attacks towards ant symbionts: body size, morphological gestalt, and chemical mimicry accuracy

von Beeren, Christoph; Brückner, Adrian; Hoenle, Philipp O.; Ospina-Jara, Bryan; Kronauer, Daniel J. C.; Blüthgen, Nico

doi:10.1186/s12983-021-00427-8

Frontiers in Zoology

Table 2 Overview of phenotypic traits per ecitophile species

From: Multiple phenotypic traits as triggers of host attacks towards ant symbionts: body size, morphological gestalt, and chemical mimicry accuracy

Order	Family	Ecitophile species	Morph. gestalt	Host specificity	Dry weight ± SD	Contacts ± SD	AI ± SD	BCS ± SD
Coleoptera	Histeridae	Aphanister sp.1	Protective	Unknown	0.43 (1)	21 (1)	0.00	61 (1)
		Cheilister cf. lucidus	Protective	Unknown	0.48 (1)	23 (1)	0.00	39 (1)
		Psalidister furcatus	Protective	Unknown	0.75 (1)	46 (1)	0	83 (1)
		Euxenister caroli	Protective	Specialist	3.84 ± 1.45 (4)	63 ± 35 (4)	0.15 ± 0.23	85 ± 7 (4)
		Euxenister wheeleri	Protective	Specialist	2.86 ± 0.23 (9)	29 (1)	0.07	80 ± 18 (9)
		Nymphister kronaueri	Protective	Specialist	0.74 ± 0.13 (26)	27 ± 12 (11)	0.01 ± 0.01	86 ± 13 (26)
		Sternocoelopsis cf. nevermanni	Protective	Unknown	1.06 ± 0.04 (2)	–	–	92 ± 1 (2)
	Hydrophylidae	Sacosternum aff. lebbinorum	Protective	Unknown	0.31 (1)	4 (1)	0	33 (1)
	Ptiliidae	Cephaloplectus mus	Protective	Generalist	0.56 ± 0.12 (26)	–	–	79 ± 12 (27)
		Limulodes sp. 2	Protective	Specialist	0.04 ± 0.02 (2)	25 ± 1 (2)	0.00 ± 0.00	–
		Limulodes sp. 3	Protective	Moderate specificity	0.05 ± 0.01 (11)	–	–	84 ± 7 (11)
	Staphylinidae	Campbellia lucanoides	Myrmecoid	Specialist	0.47 ± 0.07 (11)	–	–	64 ± 9 (13)
		Ecitopora sp. 2	Staphylinid-like	Moderate specificity	0.391 (1)	–	–	59 (1)
		Ecitomorpha cf. breviceps	Myrmecoid	Specialist	0.44 ± 0.04 (3)	82 ± 42 (4)	0.01 ± 0.01	88 ± 6 (4)
		Ecitomorpha cf. nevermanni	Myrmecoid	Specialist	0.67 ± 0.15 (22)	95 ± 43 (24)	0.00 ± 0.00	90 ± 6 (23)
		Ecitophya gracillima	Myrmecoid	Specialist	–	–	–	89 ± 9 (3)
		Ecitophya simulans	Myrmecoid	Specialist	1.33 ± 0.51 (23)	115 ± 43 (23)	0.00 ± 0.00	94 ± 2 (22)
		Myrmedonota sp. 1	Staphylinid-like	Specialist	0.15 ± 0.03 (25)	36 ± 46 (11)	0.00 ± 0.01	37 ± 11 (18)
		Proxenobius borgmeieri	Staphylinid-like	Specialist	4.46 ± 0.54 (13)	97 ± 42 (5)	0.11 ± 0.13	89 ± 5 (13)
		Tetradonia cf. marginalis	Staphylinid-like	Moderate specificity	0.57 ± 0.07 (32)	12 ± 13 (19)	0.05 ± 0.09	74 ± 8 (32)
		Tetradonia laselvensis	Staphylinid-like	Moderate specificity	0.66 ± 0.08 (12)	18 ± 17 (10)	0.01 ± 0.02	62 ± 13 (12)
		Tetradonia laticeps	Staphylinid-like	Generalist	0.48 ± 0.09 (29)	23 ± 14 (12)	0.23 ± 0.22	38 ± 19 (29)
		Tetradonia lizonae	Staphylinid-like	Specialist	0.56 ± 0.10 (23)	15 ± 18 (9)	0.16 ± 0.15	70 ± 16 (24)
		Tetradonia tikalensis	Staphylinid-like	Moderate specificity	0.32 (1)	–	–	63 (1)
		Vatesus aff. goianus	Ad: Protective La: larval-shaped	Specialist	Ad: 2.35 ± 0.45 (34) La: 1.16 ± 0.48 (7)	Ad: 42 ± 22 (14) La 74 ± 24 (7)	Ad: 0.19 ± 0.13 0.01 ± 0.01	Ad: 90 ± 7 (33) La: 29 ± 8 (5)
		Vatesus cf. clypeatus sp. 1	Ad: Protective La: larval-shaped	Specialist	Ad: 4.69 ± 0.46 (6) La: 2.23 ± 1.12 (14)	Ad: 123 ± 15 (7) La: 56 ± 26 (14)	Ad: 0.15 ± 0.04 La: 0.00 ± 0.01	Ad: 89 ± 2 (7) La: 30 ± 16 (14)
		Vatesus cf. clypeatus sp. 2	Ad: Protective La: larval-shaped	Moderate specificity	Ad: 4.39 ± 0.64 (23) La: 1.76 ± 0.64 (31)	Ad: 65 ± 35 (21) La: 79 ± 43 (21)	Ad: 0.19 ± 0.15 La: 0.01 ± 0.03	Ad: 91 ± 6 (24) La: 54 ± 26 (23)
		Vatesus cf. clypeatus sp. 3	Ad: Protective	Specialist	Ad: 4.01 ± 0.33 (5)	–	–	Ad: 93 ± 1 (5)
Diptera	Phoridae	Ecitophora bruchi	Phorid-like	Specialist	0.03 ± 0.01 (6)	14 ± 7 (6)	0.00 ± 0.00	–
		Ecitophora cf. comes sp. 1	Phorid-like	Generalist	0.06 ± 0.02 (10)	16 ± 18 (9)	0.05 ± 0.13	32 ± 7 (5)
		Ecitophora pilosula	Phorid-like	Specialist	0.09 ± 0.02 (4)	22 ± 20 (10)	0.00 ± 0.00	44 ± 25 (5)
		Ecitophora varians	Phorid-like	Specialist	0.05 ± 0.02 (5)	7 ± 7 (5)	0.00 ± 0.00	40 ± 9 (5)
		Ecituncula tarsalis	Phorid-like	Moderate specificity	0.03 ± 0.01 (20)	9 ± 14 (8)	0.00 ± 0.00	52 ± 13 (14)
		Thalloptera fuscipalpis	Phorid-like	Moderate specificity	0.10 ± 0.04 (5)	64 ± 48 (2)	0.00 ± 0.00	45 ± 18 (5)
Thysanura	Nicoletiidae	Trichatelura manni	Protective	Generalist	2.39 ± 1.14 (48)	85 ± 39 (32)	0.07 ± 0.12	69 ± 11 (48)

Definitions of morphological gestalts are given in the methods. Host specificities of ecitophiles were evaluated in a separate study [75]. Host specificity categories (specialist, moderate, generalist, unknown) were defined according to the metric d’ (Kullback–Leibler index): range of d’ between 0.00–0.10 = generalist, 0.11–0.25 = moderate specificity, 0.26–0.52 = host specialist. Host specificities of rare species (< 5 specimens collected; see [75]) were defined as 'unknown'. Body size was calculated as ecitophiles’ dry weight in milligram. Numbers of ant contacts (contacts), aggression indices (AI), and Bray–Curtis similarities (BCS) to the average chemical worker profile (centroid) of the ecitophiles’ colony of origin give means and standard deviation (SD). Number in parentheses gives the number of analyzed specimens, which is the same for ant contacts and AI
Ad adults, La Larvae, morph. morphological

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