Different types of mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships often coexist in the same community, and these mutually beneficial symbiotic species interact, co-evolve, and form complex interdependent networks, but the mechanisms by which species in the network interact with each other and the mechanisms by which network stability is maintained remain unclear.
In a network of yellow ants-horned cicadas and banyan tree-banyan wasps, Wang Bo, a researcher in the Collaborative Evolution Research Group of xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his collaborators found that the body surface compounds of the horned cicadas and the epidermal compounds of the fruit branches of the banyan tree are similar in composition. The results of the behavioral test showed that the body surface compounds of the horned cicada and the epidermal compounds of the fruit branches of the banyan tree reduced the predation of the yellow fox ant on the horned cicada nymph, thereby maintaining the mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between the ant and the horned cicada without honeydew, and the simulation of the smell of the banyan tree could maintain the ant-horned cicada mutually beneficial symbiosis. In addition, the population of the yellow fox ant showed a significant positive correlation with the number of horned cicadas. Compared with the fruit branches that isolated the yellow ant-horned cicada, the fruit branches with a large number of yellow lynx-horned cicadas have more powdered bee generations, and the banyan tree has a greater seed yield.
Yellow lynx ants and horned cicadas form a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, on the other hand, they can effectively prey on non-pollinator fig wasps, reduce the competition between non-pollinator fig wasps and pollinator wasps, and thus protect the mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between banyan trees and pollinator wasps. Studies have shown that the simulation of chemical signals between species plays an important role in maintaining the stability of complex networks. The research results were published online on Scientific Reports under the title of Chemical camouflage: a key process in shaping an ant-treehopper and fig-fig wasp mutualistic network.
Interspecific relationship between ant-horned cicada and banyan tree-banyan wasp mutually beneficial symbiotic network.
Effects of ant-horned cicada populations of different abundances on community composition (a) of fig wasps, the number of fig bee generations and the seed yield of banyan trees (b).