Study species
Ruellia nudiflora (Engelm. & A.Gray) Urb. (Acanthaceae) is a perennial herb native to Texas (Turner, 1991), commonly found in urban and rural areas (Fig. 1), with a wide distribution from southern United States to southern Mexico and Central America (Tripp, 2007). It is a self-compatible species that produces flowers with open corolla (chasmogamous), allowing outcrossing by insect pollination, and flowers with closed corolla (cleistogamous), preventing outcrossing (Tripp, 2007). Common herbivores include the leaf-eating caterpillarsAnartia jatrophae and Siproeta stelenes (Nymphalidae) (Ortegón-Campos et al. 2009), and the seed predatorTripudia paraplesia (Noctuidae; Abdala-Roberts et al.,2016)⁠, which in turn is attacked by several parasitoid species from three wasp families (Braconidae: four species, Ichneumonidae: one specie, Pteromalidae: two species) and one fly species (Tachinidae) (Abdala-Roberts et al. , 2016). Ant-aphid interactions have also been observed on R. nudiflora in both rural and urban areas (pers. obs.). Studies on the R. nudiflora -AMF interaction have found that the average colonization rate by AMF is 52%, and this association has a positive effect on growth rate and plant fitness (Ramos-Zapata et al. , 2010; Mejía-Alva et al. , 2018), as well as an increase in plant cover and a reduction of attacked fruits by seed predators (Mejía-Alva et al. , 2018). Previous research has studied the effect of soil conditions on R. nudiflora fitness and found a significant effect on survival (Ortegón-Campos et al. , 2012). All this information shows that R. nudiflora is a plant facing a complex multispecific environment (herbivores, third-trophic level, AMF interactions) which can drive adaptive evolution; however, there is a lack of studies evaluating the effect of urban conditions onR. nudiflora and its ecological interactions.