RELATIONS BETWEEN SPECIES-DIVERSITY AND DIET IN COMMUNITIES OF ANTS

The food collected by all species of ants in eleyen communities was sampled, and the niche breadths and overlaps calculated. In communities of the Mojave Desert, the mean niche breadths were found to be relatively constant, regardless of changes in elevation or species diversity. Niche overlaps, however, were positively correlated with species diversity. With increases in latitude in the Great Basin Desert, the food niche breadths increased and overlaps decreased. Niche breadths were, not significantly correlated with species diversity in the Great Basin communities. The effect of diffuse overlap (amount of overlap in diet received by a species from all other species in the community) was to increase the rate at which overlap increased with species diversity. Running head: diets of ants. © 1979 Masson.