domatium

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English

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An eriophyoid mite surrounded by white exuviae inside a domatium

Etymology

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Borrowed from New Latin domatium, from Ancient Greek δωμάτιον (dōmátion, chamber, bedroom), diminutive of δῶμα (dôma, house, dwelling place of animals); akin to δόμος (dómos, house).[1]

Noun

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domatium (plural domatia)

  1. (entomology, botany) A chamber produced by a plant in which insects, mites, or fungi live.
    A domatium typically takes the form of a hollow under a leaf, or a system of tunnels in a thorn or stem. Ideally, it is a mutualistic adaptation and should not be confused with simple damage by a borer or gall-forming pest, although commonly there is no sharp distinction between domatia of value to the plant and galls caused by harmful aphids and mites, for example.
    • 1990, Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson, The Ants, Harvard University Press, page 535:
      All are ordinary anatomical features of the plants that the ants exploit, apparently in a unilateral manner. In contrast, the domatia listed comprehensively in Table 14-1 do appear uniquely to serve as ant nests.
    • 2004, David Evans Walter, “11: Hidden in Plain Sight: Mites in the Canopy”, in Margaret D. Lowman, H. Bruce Rinker, editors, Forest Canopies, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 237:
      Although the earliest work on mites and leaf domatia was inspired by a belief that mites protected trees from fungal disease (O'Dowd and Willson 1989), mite–fungus–plant interactions received experimental attention only recently.
    • 2005, Louis M. Schoonhoven, Joop J. A. van Loon, Marcel Dicke, Insect-Plant Biology, Oxford University Press, page 40:
      Domatia and extrafloral nectaries are plant structures that provide shelter and food to predaceous arthropods and thus affect herbivorous insects only indirectly.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ "domatium", Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, last accessed 14 May 2023.