Publications

acoustic alarm signalling facilitates predator protection of treehoppers by mutualist ant bodyguards.	mutualism is a net positive interaction that includes varying degrees of both costs and benefits. because tension between the costs and benefits of mutualism can lead to evolutionary instability, identifying mechanisms that regulate investment between partners is critical to understanding the evolution and maintenance of mutualism. recently, studies have highlighted the importance of interspecific signalling as one mechanism for regulating investment between mutualist partners. here, we provide ...	2008	18480015
isolation and characterization of nine microsatellite loci in an ant-tended treehopper publilia concava.	publilia concava is an eastern north american membracid commonly occurring in large but spatially patchy aggregations, primarily on the host plant solidago altissima. like other myrmecophiles, p. concava provides sugary excretions to ants in return for the various protective, competitive or even sanitary benefits that ants provide. we developed nine microsatellite loci from p. concava. mean per locus allele number was 6.78, and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.03 to 0.850. one locus exhib ...	2009	21564870
model selection analysis of temporal variation in benefit for an ant-tended treehopper.	recent studies of mutualism have emphasized both that the net benefit to participants depends on the ecological context and that the density-dependent pattern of benefit is key to understanding the population dynamics of mutualism. indeed, changes in the ecological context are likely to drive changes in both the magnitude of benefit and the density-dependent pattern of benefit. despite the close linkage between these two areas of research, however, few studies have addressed the factors underlyi ...	2011	21608479
mechanisms of aggregation in an ant-tended treehopper: attraction to mutualists is balanced by conspecific competition.	understanding the spatial structure of populations and communities has been a dominant focus of ecological research, and spatial structure is increasingly seen as critical for understanding population dynamics. habitat (or host) preference is a proximate mechanism that can generate aggregation or overdispersion, lending insight into the ultimate consequences of observed spatial distributions. publilia concava is a univoltine phloem-feeding insect that forms mutualistic associations with ants, wh ...	2017	28732064