domatium

English

An eriophyoid mite surrounded by white exuviae inside a domatium

Etymology

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”).

Noun

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

• acarodomatium

Translations

chamber produced by a plant, in which insects, mites or fungi live

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