DOI: 10.5061/dryad.p6440
title: Data from: Mutualists or parasites? Context-dependent influence of symbiotic fly larvae on carnivorous investment in the Albany pitcher plant

description: Carnivorous plants allocate more resources to carnivorous structures under
 nutrient-limited conditions, and relative investment can also be
 influenced by animals (infauna) that live in association with these plants
 and feed on their prey. We investigated these effects within a population
 of the pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis containing varying densities
 of larvae of the fly Badisis ambulans. For plants with a relatively high
 proportion of adult pitchers, increasing larval density was associated
 with lower relative leaf allocation to new pitcher buds. For plants with
 relatively few adult pitchers, however, there was greater relative leaf
 allocation to pitcher buds with increasing larval density. In a field
 experiment, there was no significant effect of experimental larval
 presence or absence on the change in carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio of
 plants. Although the direction of the correlation between B. ambulans
 larvae and relative investment in carnivorous and non-carnivorous
 structures depends on the relative number of mature structures, whether
 the larvae enhance or reduce nutrient stress under different conditions
 remains unclear. The change in C/N was, however, less variable for
 pitchers that contained larvae, suggesting a stabilizing effect. Eighteen
 of 52 experimental pitchers were damaged by an unknown species, causing
 the pitcher fluid to drain. These pitchers were significantly more likely
 to survive if they contained larvae. These results suggest that the
 relationship between infauna and host varies with the initial resource
 status and environmental context of the host plant.
description: Lymbery et al. Open
 Science Albany Pitcher Plant Carnivorous Investment DataThis file contains all
 data relevant to the carnivorous investment results in our article. Data
 recorded include plant ID (ID), total pitcher volume (TV), total number of
 flies contained (TF), number of pitcher buds (PB), ratio of pitcher buds
 to total buds (Ratio), percentage vegetation cover (% Cover), density of
 flies (Density and Density2), number of pitchers (P), total buds (TB),
 density of flies per pitcher (DensityPP), number of leaf buds (LB), total
 number of leaves (TL), and number of adult leaves (AL).Lymbery et al. Open
 Science Albany Pitcher Plant CN DataThis file contains all
 data relevant to the nutrient status experiment in our article. Data
 recorded include plant ID (ID), total nitrogen (N before experiment and N2
 after the experiment), total carbon (C before experiment and C2 after the
 experiment), carbon to nitrogen ratio (CN before experiment and CN2 after
 the experiment), treatment (Treatment), number of pitchers (P), percentage
 vegetation cover (Cover), total pitcher volume (TV), total number of flies
 pre-experiment (TF), number of pitcher buds (PB), number of leaf buds
 (LB), number of leaves (TL), number of adult leaves (AL), density of flies
 pre-experiment (Density), change in total N (dN), change in total C (dC),
 and change in C to N ratio (dCN).