Path diagrams for the consumer cascade multi-group SEM analysis.

<p>Spider treatment (exogenous variable) is shown as a yellow box and has direct effects (single-headed paths) on herbivores, which in turn have direct effects on plant traits. Direct effects of foliar C and N concentrations on foliar C/N are also included to assess their relative contributions to this ratio. The dependent (endogenous) variables are depicted in white boxes; double-headed paths are unresolved correlations. Solid paths are positive and dashed paths are negative, and the width of all paths is scaled by standardized effect size (paths < 0.025 are weighted as 0.025 to remain visible). Significant (<i>P</i> ≤ 0.05) and marginally significant (<i>P</i> ≤ 0.10) paths are shown in color (red: positive, blue: negative) and indicated by stars and parentheses around stars, respectively. Both models had adequate fit to the data (<i>N</i>. <i>tabacum</i>: <i>n</i> = 75, χ² = 9.84, d.f. = 9, <i>P</i> = 0.364; <i>N</i>. <i>tabacum</i>: <i>n</i> = 74, χ² = 3.97, d.f. = 9, <i>P</i> = 0.914).