{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97732"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97732","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Prevalence and impacts of ants colonizing active bird nests in Illinois","abstract":"Arthropod communities are often dependent on the availability of ephemeral microhabitats. Many organisms, including birds, mammals and social insects, build nests which create unique and suitable microhabitats for a variety of other animals. These constructed environments can protect their residents from predation and from harmful abiotic conditions. In turn, the communities of arthropods that colonize animal made habitats may positively or negatively influence the nest owner. Bird nests, for example, are known to harbor arthropods communities that include both harmful (e.g. ectoparasitic fly larvae) and possibly beneficial species. I quantified the arthropod communities of nests of ten species of birds in Illinois along a land-use gradient. I found workers of eight species of ants in nests, and for three of these species (Tapinoma sessile, Temnothorax curvispinosus, and Crematogaster cerasi) there was evidence that at least part of their colonies inhabited the nest. Tapioma sessile was the most common species and maintained the largest colonies in nest material. I found that the percentage of forest cover surrounding bird nests best predicted the presence of T. sessile colonies, with colonies being negatively associated with forest cover. In addition to ants, members of 19 other arthropod orders were found living in the nests. There was little evidence that ant presence influenced the abundance or prevalence of other arthropods within nests with one exception. Brown Thrasher nests with T. sessile colonies had fewer fly larvae and pupae than nests without ants. Fledging success did not differ between nests with and without T. sessile colonies for any bird species. Polydomy and a high degree of nomadism are characteristics which likely predispose ant species like T. sessile to colonizing active bird nests. The association between these ant species and bird nests likely is a facultative commensalism benefiting ants that is widespread in North America, and warrants further investigation.","abstract_html":"Arthropod communities are often dependent on the availability of ephemeral microhabitats. Many organisms, including birds, mammals and social insects, build nests which create unique and suitable microhabitats for a variety of other animals. These constructed environments can protect their residents from predation and from harmful abiotic conditions. In turn, the communities of arthropods that colonize animal made habitats may positively or negatively influence the nest owner. Bird nests, for example, are known to harbor arthropods communities that include both harmful (e.g. ectoparasitic fly larvae) and possibly beneficial species. I quantified the arthropod communities of nests of ten species of birds in Illinois along a land-use gradient. I found workers of eight species of ants in nests, and for three of these species (Tapinoma sessile, Temnothorax curvispinosus, and Crematogaster cerasi) there was evidence that at least part of their colonies inhabited the nest. Tapioma sessile was the most common species and maintained the largest colonies in nest material. I found that the percentage of forest cover surrounding bird nests best predicted the presence of T. sessile colonies, with colonies being negatively associated with forest cover. In addition to ants, members of 19 other arthropod orders were found living in the nests. There was little evidence that ant presence influenced the abundance or prevalence of other arthropods within nests with one exception. Brown Thrasher nests with T. sessile colonies had fewer fly larvae and pupae than nests without ants. Fledging success did not differ between nests with and without T. sessile colonies for any bird species. Polydomy and a high degree of nomadism are characteristics which likely predispose ant species like T. sessile to colonizing active bird nests. The association between these ant species and bird nests likely is a facultative commensalism benefiting ants that is widespread in North America, and warrants further investigation.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gibson, Joshua Caleb"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Entomology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Suarez, Andrew V.","Allan, Brian F.","Ward, Michael P."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-08-10T20:33:05Z","date_published":"2017-08-10T20:33:05Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:34Z","subjects":["Ants","Bird nests","Commensalism"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2017 Joshua Gibson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97732","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Suarez, Andrew V.","Allan, Brian F.","Ward, Michael P."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gibson, Joshua Caleb"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017-08-10T20:33:05Z","2019-08-11T09:15:32Z","2017-04-24","2017-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Entomology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Ants","Bird nests","Commensalism"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2017 Joshua Gibson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97732"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Arthropod communities are often dependent on the availability of ephemeral microhabitats. Many organisms, including birds, mammals and social insects, build nests which create unique and suitable microhabitats for a variety of other animals. These constructed environments can protect their residents from predation and from harmful abiotic conditions. In turn, the communities of arthropods that colonize animal made habitats may positively or negatively influence the nest owner. Bird nests, for example, are known to harbor arthropods communities that include both harmful (e.g. ectoparasitic fly larvae) and possibly beneficial species. I quantified the arthropod communities of nests of ten species of birds in Illinois along a land-use gradient. I found workers of eight species of ants in nests, and for three of these species (Tapinoma sessile, Temnothorax curvispinosus, and Crematogaster cerasi) there was evidence that at least part of their colonies inhabited the nest. Tapioma sessile was the most common species and maintained the largest colonies in nest material. I found that the percentage of forest cover surrounding bird nests best predicted the presence of T. sessile colonies, with colonies being negatively associated with forest cover. In addition to ants, members of 19 other arthropod orders were found living in the nests. There was little evidence that ant presence influenced the abundance or prevalence of other arthropods within nests with one exception. Brown Thrasher nests with T. sessile colonies had fewer fly larvae and pupae than nests without ants. Fledging success did not differ between nests with and without T. sessile colonies for any bird species. Polydomy and a high degree of nomadism are characteristics which likely predispose ant species like T. sessile to colonizing active bird nests. The association between these ant species and bird nests likely is a facultative commensalism benefiting ants that is widespread in North America, and warrants further investigation.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01","The student, Joshua Gibson, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-18 at 17:10.","The student, Joshua Gibson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-04-18 at 17:22.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-04-24 at 14:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10868 on 2017-08-10 at 15:06:07","Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T20:33:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 GIBSON-THESIS-2017.pdf: 342737 bytes, checksum: c693a74bcccf54830b562df492a18917 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4210 bytes, checksum: 3fd7179e1cb9f4f65c599d63d7028d5d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-24","Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 102785 Lift date: 2019-08-10T21:27:21Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 102785 on 2019-08-11T09:15:32Z."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Prevalence and impacts of ants colonizing active bird nests in Illinois"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Suarez, Andrew V.","Allan, Brian F.","Ward, Michael P."],"dc:creator":["Gibson, Joshua Caleb"],"dc:date":["2017-08-10T20:33:05Z","2019-08-11T09:15:32Z","2017-04-24","2017-05"],"dc:description":["Arthropod communities are often dependent on the availability of ephemeral microhabitats. Many organisms, including birds, mammals and social insects, build nests which create unique and suitable microhabitats for a variety of other animals. These constructed environments can protect their residents from predation and from harmful abiotic conditions. In turn, the communities of arthropods that colonize animal made habitats may positively or negatively influence the nest owner. Bird nests, for example, are known to harbor arthropods communities that include both harmful (e.g. ectoparasitic fly larvae) and possibly beneficial species. I quantified the arthropod communities of nests of ten species of birds in Illinois along a land-use gradient. I found workers of eight species of ants in nests, and for three of these species (Tapinoma sessile, Temnothorax curvispinosus, and Crematogaster cerasi) there was evidence that at least part of their colonies inhabited the nest. Tapioma sessile was the most common species and maintained the largest colonies in nest material. I found that the percentage of forest cover surrounding bird nests best predicted the presence of T. sessile colonies, with colonies being negatively associated with forest cover. In addition to ants, members of 19 other arthropod orders were found living in the nests. There was little evidence that ant presence influenced the abundance or prevalence of other arthropods within nests with one exception. Brown Thrasher nests with T. sessile colonies had fewer fly larvae and pupae than nests without ants. Fledging success did not differ between nests with and without T. sessile colonies for any bird species. Polydomy and a high degree of nomadism are characteristics which likely predispose ant species like T. sessile to colonizing active bird nests. The association between these ant species and bird nests likely is a facultative commensalism benefiting ants that is widespread in North America, and warrants further investigation.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01","The student, Joshua Gibson, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-18 at 17:10.","The student, Joshua Gibson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-04-18 at 17:22.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-04-24 at 14:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10868 on 2017-08-10 at 15:06:07","Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T20:33:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 GIBSON-THESIS-2017.pdf: 342737 bytes, checksum: c693a74bcccf54830b562df492a18917 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4210 bytes, checksum: 3fd7179e1cb9f4f65c599d63d7028d5d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-24","Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 102785 Lift date: 2019-08-10T21:27:21Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 102785 on 2019-08-11T09:15:32Z."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97732"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2017 Joshua Gibson"],"dc:subject":["Ants","Bird nests","Commensalism"],"dc:title":["Prevalence and impacts of ants colonizing active bird nests in Illinois"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Entomology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:34Z"}