Trait-Mediated Indirect Effects of Phorid Flies on Ants

Abstract EN

This paper provides a synthesis of the ecological impact of phorid fly parasitoids on ants.

We find the most important impact of phorids on ants to be trait-mediated effects.

Phorids diminish the foraging activity of ants, frequently reducing the number and average size of foragers and reducing the amount of food retrieved by a colony.

However, ants' coping mechanisms include changing foraging site and time.

Phorids can also affect competition, especially through changes in the ability of the host to win in exploitative competition.

Factors such as microclimate, resource size, and habitat complexity interact with phorids to change their effect on competition.

By being highly specific and attacking ants high in the competitive hierarchy, phorids can alter the linear nature of the competitive transitivity, and by reducing the number of foragers, they can change the discovery-dominance tradeoff that is observed in some ant communities.

Trait-mediated effects of phorids also cascade to other trophic levels.

As an example, we discuss the trait-mediated cascade of phorids on the Azteca instabilis system in coffee.

In this system, by reducing the foraging activity of A.

instabilis, phorids reduce the direct and indirect biological control impact of the ant in the coffee agroecosystem.