An empirical approach to guild structure: habitat relationships in nine species 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 (gamma ) and niche breadth (beta ). A highly significant inverse correlation between these parameters was found. By using the gamma -beta plane and the factor analyses, the guild was found to consist of a generalist species, a subgeneralist, 2 subspecialist and 5 specialist taxa. Uniform levels of niche overlap predicted by conventional theory thus need not occur; rather a complex pattern involving both low and high overlaps often may be evident