same host plant in this system appears to be promoted by heterogeneity in nest site

availability, competitive interactions among species, different life history strategies and

interactions with other organisms.

 The amount of herbivore damage on leaves surrounding domatia was affected by

random environmental variation, plant age, fertilization and the number of ants present.

For the 5-yr-old plants, local herbivory was not affected by fertilization but was lower as

a function of the number of workers in a domatium. However, fertilization reduced

herbivory and ant abundance had no effect for the 1-yr-old plants. A palatability trial

with a specialist herbivore, the beetle Coptocycla leprosa Boheman, showed that

fertilized plants were less palatable regardless of plant age. This suggests that C.

alliodora likely has a mixed defensive strategy in which young plants are chemically

defended or tolerant to herbivory, with the effectiveness contingent upon resource

availability, whereas older plants appear to be defended by their resident ant colonies.