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Science 29 April 1983:
Vol. 220. no. 4596, pp. 532 - 533
DOI: 10.1126/science.220.4596.532
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Articles

Treehoppers Transfer Parental Care to Ants: A New Benefit of Mutualism

CATHERINE M. BRISTOW 1

1 Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berks, SL5 7PY, Great Britain

Female treehoppers (Publilia reticulata Van Duzee) modify their parental care behavior in the presence of ants. Females with untended young remain with their original brood, but females from ant-tended colonies readily desert their first brood and produce additional clutches. Care by female treehoppers, in the absence of ants, increases the probability that a colony will produce some survivors, but ant attendance greatly increases the number of surviving nymphs.

Submitted on May 13, 1982
Revised on November 30, 1982


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Quantifying the costs and benefits of parental care in female treehoppers.
A. G. Zink (2003)
Behav. Ecol. 14, 687-693
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)