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[Vol. 94 
carrion-feeding insect guilds than in temperate regions (Carnaby 
1974, Jiron and Cartin 1981). It has been suggested that their lower 
abundance in the tropics is due to the increased loss of carrion to 
bacteria, fly larvae, carrion-scavenging vertebrates and ants (Arnett 
1946, Peck and Anderson 1985). It would be tempting to assume 
that the inverse correlation between ant and burying beetle species 
diversity is a causal factor in the distribution of silphids. However, 
our limited study of competition between ants and burying beetles 
allows us to conclude only that ants may exert at least a strong, local 
effect on the ability of burying beetles to secure carrion. This effect 
does not appear dependent only on interactions with the imported 
species Solenopsis invicta; the native S. geminata also dominates 
carrion placed out at other sites in Florida (Lloyd Davis, pers. 
comm.). Although there is a difference in ant species diversity 
between the two sites in our study (approximately twelve species 
total in New Hampshire and sixteen to thirty in Florida; Jeanne 
1976, Calabi 1986, Trager, pers. comm., Traniello, pers. obs.), we 
cannot conclude that there is a direct cause-and-effect relationship 
between ant diversity and the ability of ants to control prey poten- 
tially available to burying beetles. In fact Jeanne’s (1979) data show 
that predation rate by ants was higher on the ground than on vege- 
tation although ant species diversity was higher in the latter micro- 
habitat. Although very little is known about the use of small 
vertebrate carrion in the tropics, such resources may be exploited by 
ants, and the presence of only a few dominant ground species may 
reduce burying beetle reproductive success. Given the information 
available on the patterns of distribution and abundance of ants, it 
can be inferred that carrion may be approached more frequently by 
ants in the tropics than in the temperate zone. A relatively small 
number of omnivorous genera having species with large colony size 
and rapid recruitment communication may effectively restrict the 
use of carrion by burying beetles, perhaps producing patterns in the 
tropics similar to what we have described in Florida. In New Hamp- 
shire and Florida the relative importance of ants in Nicrophorus 
ecology seems dramatically different, but the relative importance of 
the distribution of ants, flies, and microbes in the biology of burying 
beetles remains to be determined. 
