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).