An Empirical Approach to Guild Structure: Habitat Relationships in Nine Species of Eastern-Australian Cicadas

Abstract

The predominance of the concept of interspecific competition in guild studies has led to a concentration on questions of limiting similarity and niche packing. To broaden the scope of interest, we have employed an empirical approach to determine the mix of strategies (e.g. generalization, specialization) in a guild of eastern Australian cicadas. Multivariate analyses of habitat ordinations were undertaken to characterize the typical habitat, and the range of habitats, occupied by each species. These data were used to produce a relationship between niche position (y) and niche breadth (3). A highly significant inverse correlation between these parameters was found. By using the y-P plane and the factor analyses, the guild was found to consist of one generalist species, one subgeneralist, two subspecialist and five specialist taxa. These results show that uniform levels of niche overlap predicted by conventional theory need not occur, but rather, a complex pattern involving both low and high overlaps often may be evident.