Measure of leaf area removed by insects in plants growing on gaps with and without ant gardens

This databank compreend the instantaneous measure of leaf area removed by
insects in 5 leaves of 1306 plants growing on gaps with and
without ant gardens. The ant gardens (AGs) are associations of epyfites,
planted and mantained by mutualistic ants whose defend this plants agaist
herbivores. The ants are not restricted to the AGs, but instead, forage
for food, particularly extrafloral nectar of plants growing along the gap
area. Particularly on Amazon forest, the most frequently ants
associated to AGs are Crematogaster levior (Myrmicinae) and Camponotus
femoratus (Formicinae), living together in the AGS in a parabiotic
association and present in all AGs studied. The idea of the study behind
the collection of these data is to determine if the proptective role of
the AG ants can be extrapolated to the plants growing on the gap. So, we
determined the effect of there extremely agressive ants on the herbivory
of treelets and shrubs growing on the gap area.