graveyards on the move the spatio-temporal distribution of dead ophiocordyceps-infected ants死亡墓地的时空分布ophiocordyceps-infected蚂蚁.pdfVIP

Graveyards on the Move: The Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Dead Ophiocordyceps-Infected Ants 1 2 3 4 Maj-Britt Pontoppidan *, Winanda Himaman , Nigel L. Hywel-Jones , Jacobus J. Boomsma , David P. Hughes4,5,6* 1 Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 Forest Entomology and Microbiology Group, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok, Thailand, 3 Mycology Laboratory, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Science Park, Pathum Thani, Thailand, 4 Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5 Museum of Comparative Zoology Labs, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, 6 School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom Abstract Parasites are likely to play an important role in structuring host populations. Many adaptively manipulate host behaviour, so that the extended phenotypes of these parasites and their distributions in space and time are potentially important ecological variables. The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which is pan-tropical in distribution, causes infected worker ants to leave their nest and die under leaves in the understory of tropical rainforests. Working in a forest dynamic plot in Southern Thailand we mapped the occurrence of these dead ants by examining every leaf in 1,360 m2 of primary rainforest. 2 We established that high density aggregations exist (up to 26 dead ants/m ), which we coined graveyards. We further established that gr