2.4.1. Ant dominance classification
We obtained the identity of the ant species interacting with the plants
with EFNs in nine of the 13 papers, representing 38 of the 65 networks
in our dataset. We classified each ant species into categories of
hierarchical dominance based on the literature (Andersen and Patel 1994,
Andersen 1997, Cerdá et al. 2013, Stuble et al. 2017) (see Supporting
information to a list of ants and their dominance hierarchies). This
hierarchical classification tends to be relatively consistent across ant
genera in different biogeographical regions (Cerdá et al. 2013). Because
of it, this categorization has been successfully used to identify
emergent macroecological patterns involving ant communities worldwide
(Baccaro et al. 2011, Dáttilo et al. 2014b, Leal and Peixoto 2017, Leal
et al. 2022).
In the literature, ant species exhibiting mass recruitment, overly
aggressive behaviors, and a higher ability to monopolize resources and
territories are classified as dominants (Cerdá et al. 2013). Ant
species exhibiting mass recruitment (but less expressive than dominant
species), a higher ability to monopolize food resources, but less
frequent aggressive behavior are classified as sub-dominants(Andersen 1995, Arnan et al. 2011). When dominant ant species are absent
in a community, sub-dominant ants could dominate, being functionally
similar to dominant species (e.g. Andersen 1995). In such cases,
sub-dominants have a similar ability to monopolize and defend plants
with EFNs than the truly dominant ant species (Horvitz and Schemske
1984). Since we lack information regarding the composition of the ant
community occurring in the areas where each study was conducted and that
both dominant and sub-dominant ants can equally influence the behavior
of subordinate ant species (Parr and Gibb 2010), we pooled dominant and
sub-dominant ant species into the same group named as dominants
hereafter (similar approach used by Leal and Peixoto 2017, Leal et al.
2022). Finally, we classified as subordinates the ant species
that forage solitarily, not exhibiting mass recruitment and/or
aggressive behaviors (Cerdá et al. 2013).