VARIANCE IN COMPOSITION OF INQUILINE COMMUNITIES IN LEAVES OF SARRACENIA-PURPUREA L ON MULTIPLE SPATIAL SCALES

A survey of the abundances of species that inhabit thp water-bearing l eaves of the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea was conducted at severa l different spatial scales in northern Florida. Individual leaves are hosts to communities of inquiline species, including mosquitoes, midge s, mitts, copepods. cladocerans, and a diverse bacterial assemblage. I nquiline communities were quantified from four pitchers per plant, thr ee plants pet subpopulation, two subpopulations per population, and th ree populations. Species var-led ill abundance al, different spatial s cales. Variation in the abundances of mosquitoes and copepods was not significantly associated with any spatial scale. Midges varied in abun dance at the level of populations; one population contained significan tly mure midges than the other two. Cladocerans varied at the level of the subpopulation. whereas mites varied at the level of the individua l plants. Bacterial communities were de scribed by means of Biolog pla tes, which quantify the types of carbon media used by the bacteria in each pitch er. Bacterial communities were found to vary significantly in composition among individual plants but not among populations or su bpopulations. These results suggest that independent factors determini ng the abundances of individual species are important in determining c ommunity patterns in pitcher-plant inquilines.