Both costs and benefits determine the removal of <em>Datura</em> (Solanaceae) seeds by seed-dispersing ants

Mutualisms have both benefits and costs that organisms receive or pay when participating in the interaction. However, costs have been largely ignored when considering how mutualisms function and evolve. Plants that are dispersed by ants produce seeds with attached nutrient-rich food bodies (elaiosomes). When ants approach a diaspore (seed with attached elaiosome), they are likely to use multiple traits to decide whether or not to move it, assessing both the benefits (elaiosome mass) and costs (mass of the inedible seed) of doing so. We hypothesized that both the mass of the often-inedible seed and the elaiosome mass would affect diaspore removal rate. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the elaiosomes of Datura wrightii and D. discolor (Solanaceae). These species produce similarly sized elaiosomes (~0.4 mg), but D. wrightii’s seeds (~16 mg) are twice the mass of D. discolor’s. To measure how variable benefits of diaspores would influence seed removal, we offered ants seed that had b..., , # Data from: Both costs and benefits determine the removal of *Datura* (Solanaceae) seeds by seed-dispersing ants Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.m0cfxppft](10.5061/dryad.m0cfxppft) ## Description of the data and file structure These files contain the measurements of elaiosome and seed mass for two species of *Datura*, and data from experiments to determine how manipulating those masses influences the removal of seeds by ants. ### Files and variables bothspeciesdiaspores.csv, this file contains all the information regarding the masses of elaiosomes and seeds for both species of *Datura* used in this project * Plant.id * The identification number given to each plant * Fruit.id * The letter given to each fruit to identify it * Seed.id * The number given to each of the ten seeds taken from each fruit * Each.fruit * A name to identify each fruit that includes the plant identification number * Seed.mass * The mass of each seed in mg * Elai.mass * The mass of each elaiosome in m...,互利共生（Mutualism）中，生物参与相互作用时会获得收益并付出相应成本。然而，在探讨互利共生的运作与演化机制时，相关成本却长期被大幅忽视。依靠蚂蚁传播的植物会产生带有营养丰富附着结构——油质体（elaiosome）的种子。当蚂蚁接触到扩散体（diaspore，即带油质体的种子）时，通常会综合多个性状来决策是否搬运该扩散体，同时评估该行为的收益（油质体质量）与成本（不可食用的种子质量）。我们提出假说：通常不可食用的种子质量与油质体质量，均会对扩散体的移除率产生影响。为验证该假说，我们对曼陀罗属（Datura）的两个物种——*Datura wrightii*与*D. discolor*（茄科，Solanaceae）的油质体进行了操控处理。这两个物种的油质体大小相近（约0.4mg），但*D. wrightii*的种子（约16mg）质量是*D. discolor*的两倍。为量化扩散体的收益变异如何影响种子移除行为，我们向蚂蚁提供了经处理的种子…… # 数据来源：《成本与收益共同决定蚂蚁对*Datura*（茄科）种子的移除行为》 数据集DOI：10.5061/dryad.m0cfxppft ## 数据与文件结构说明 本数据集包含两类数据：一是两种曼陀罗属植物的油质体与种子质量测量数据，二是通过操控上述质量以探究其对蚂蚁移除种子行为影响的实验数据。 ### 文件与变量说明 bothspeciesdiaspores.csv：包含本研究中使用的两种曼陀罗属植物的油质体与种子质量的全部相关信息 * Plant.id：为每株植物分配的唯一标识编号 * Fruit.id：为每个果实分配的字母标识，用于区分不同果实 * Seed.id：为每个果实中选取的10粒种子分别分配的编号 * Each.fruit：用于标识每个果实的名称，包含植株标识编号信息 * Seed.mass：每粒种子的质量，单位为mg * Elai.mass：每粒油质体的质量，单位为mg（原文此处标注未完整）