Inflorescences of the Bromeliad Vriesea friburgensis as Nest Sites and Food Resources for Ants and Other Arthropods in Brazil

Table 1

Absolute frequencies of occurrence of ant species recorded at 33 flowering inflorescences as well as of ant nests in infructescence stems (subset of 131 infructescences) of Vriesea  friburgensis in three habitat types on Santa Catarina Island, southern Brazil. Differences between sum of ant records and number of occupied infructescences are due to occupations of stems with two ant species.

Ant species	At inflorescences; (restinga-low)	Nests in infructescences
		Restinga-low	Restinga-high	Miconietum
Acromyrmex  rugosus (Smith 1858)	1
Camponotus  arboreus (F. Smith 1858)		1
Camponotus  bonariensis Mayr 1868		4
Camponotus  novogranadensis Mayr 1870	11	1
Camponotus  rufipes (Fabricius 1775)	2
Camponotus  sexguttatus (Fabricius 1793)	4	1
Camponotus  trapezoideus Mayr 1870			1	2
Camponotus sp. 13	1
Camponotus sp. 14		1
Cephalotes  minutus (Fabricius 1804)				1
Crematogaster  curvispinosa Mayr 1862			3
Crematogaster  limata F. Smith 1858			4	3
Nesomyrmex  spininodis (Mayr 1887)				2
Procryptocerus  convergens (Mayr 1887)				2
Pseudomyrmex  gracilis (Fabricius 1804)	6	6		1
Pseudomyrmex  phyllophilus (F. Smith 1858)	6	4
Pseudomyrmex sp. PSW05^a	1
Solenopsis sp. 2	2	1	10^b	1
Sum of ant records	34	19	18	11
Number of occupied stems	—	18	17	9
Number of examined stems	33	54	28	49

aA species of the P.  flavidulus species complex which “might actually correspond to P.  flavidulus itself” (Philip Ward, pers. comm.).
bOnce three stems very close to each other were occupied by this species, so it was presumably the same colony, resulting in eight independent findings in restinga-high. Therefore, the value “8” was used for computation of similarity and diversity indices.