While the relationship between facilitation and competition has been explored extensively in
recent years, there is also a natural link between facilitation and mutualism, as both are …

Ant–plant symbioses involve plants that provide hollow structures specialized for housing
ants and often food to ants. In return, the inhabiting ants protect plants against herbivores …

Plants commonly attract predatory and parasitoid organisms, and may thereby increase
resistance against antagonistic herbivores. Mechanisms for indirect resistance include the …

Many studies assume that all ant species collecting extrafloral nectar defend plants against
herbivores, although ant–plant interactions are facultative, generalized and have variable …

Costs and benefits for partners in mutualistic interactions can vary greatly, but surprisingly
little is known about the factors that drive this variation across systems. We conducted a …

Ants show complex interactions with plants, both facultative and mutualistic, ranging from
grazers through seed predators and dispersers to herders of some herbivores and guards …

Extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) mediating ecologically important ant–plant protection
mutualisms are especially common and unusually diverse in the Leguminosae. We present …

Three recent meta‐analyses of protective plant–ant mutualisms report a surprisingly weak
relationship between herbivore protection and measured demographic benefits to ant …

Abstract Models of the evolution of virulence have typically focused on increased mortality,
one of two negative effects that parasites can inflict on their host. Those that consider the …

The foundation of many plant–ant mutualisms is ant protection of plants from herbivores in
exchange for food and/or shelter. While the role of symbiotic ants in protecting plants from …