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Domatia mediate plantarthropod mutualism

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Abstract

Leaf domatia are small hair-tufts or pockets on the lower surface of leaves, and are exceedingly common among perennial angiosperms, having been reported in 277 plant families and nearly 2,000 species1. Domatia seem to provide refuges for predatory arthropods. Here we show that cotton plants with experimentally added leaf domatia host larger populations of predatory arthropods and smaller populations of herbivorous mites than control plants. Total fruit production was increased by 30 per cent in plants with domatia — the first demonstration that plants benefit from their presence.

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Figure 1

JACK KELLY CLARK, UNIV. CALIFORNIA

Figure 2: We attached leaf domatia to most newly expanded leaves of 60 plants during the first two months of the growing season at an organic farm near Chowchillaa-c,.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Center for Population Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, 95616-8584, California, USA

    Anurag A. Agrawal & Richard Karban

Authors
  1. Anurag A. Agrawal
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  2. Richard Karban
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Agrawal, A., Karban, R. Domatia mediate plantarthropod mutualism. Nature 387, 562–563 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/42384

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