Patchiness in space and time.

<p>(A) Uniform. (B) Patchy.</p

Increase in foraging rate and distribution of marked ants in response to bait.

<p>Each column shows the results from one colony on one day. The top row shows the total number of foragers observed passing a point on the trail in 10 5-min counts, for a total of 50 min, at the site of the bait, on the trail with bait at a site between the nest and the bait, and on another trail without bait designated as “X” trail. Blue bars show numbers observed before bait was placed, yellow bars show numbers observed in the 50 min after bait was placed, and gold bars show numbers observed 3 h after bait was placed. The middle and bottom bars show the results for marked foragers in the same observations. Open bars show ants marked on the bait trail, solid bars show ants marked on the other A trail. The middle row shows the total number of marked foragers on the two trails of the indicated colony in the 50 min before bait was placed. The bottom row shows the total number of marked foragers on the two trails summed for the two observations immediately after and 3 h after bait was placed.</p

Effect of operating costs.

<p>(A) Process that stops unless initiated by a positive event. (B) Process that continues unless stopped by a negative event.</p

Ring network.

<p>(A) Ring network with flow in both directions. (B) When flow in one direction is interrupted, flow in the other direction facilitates recovery.</p

Distribution of marked ants on foraging trailss.

<p>The y axis represents total numbers of marked ants observed passing a point on a trail on a given day in 11 5-min counts. Open bars, ants marked at site 1; Filled bars, ants marked at site 2. Each graph shows representative results from a differentcolony, each on one day of observation. Left, Colony 10 with a singletrail; Middle, Colony 8 with twotrails; Right, Colony 14 with twotrails.</p

Illustration of a foraging circuit of a colony.

<p>The ants forage in dense vegetation that fills the spaces between trees; only a few trees are sketched here. Curving lines show foraging trailsthat connect a nest (filled circles) and one or more food sites (filled diamonds). Solid arrows illustrate two sites at which ants were marked, released and observed on differenttrails, one on the trailon the left, and the other on a second trailon the right. Dashed arrows illustrate two sites in a different colony at which ants were marked, released, and observed on the sametrail. The vertical lines represent tree trunks. This figure illustrates one possible configuration of many different ones observed.</p

Appendix G. Plant size distributions.

Plant size distributions

Appendix A. Comparison of results of linear regression and randomization analyses.

Comparison of results of linear regression and randomization analyses

Appendix D. N-demography of plants and ant colonies.

N-demography of plants and ant colonies

Appendix F. Ant colony fecundity.

Ant colony fecundity