Ant-plant mutualism: a dietary by-product of a tropical ant's macronutrient requirements
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Mutualism exploitation: predatory drosophilid larvae sugar-trap ants and jeopardize facultative ant-plant mutualism.
An open question in the evolutionary ecology of ant-plant facultative mutualism is how other members of the associated community can affect the interaction to a point where reciprocal benefits are disrupted. While visiting Qualea grandiflora shrubs to collect sugary rewards at extrafloral nectaries, tropical savanna ants deter herbivores and reduce leaf damage. Here we show that larvae of the f...
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Phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses can enhance our understanding of multispecies interactions by placing the origin and evolution of such interactions in a temporal and geographical context. We use a phylogenomic approach-ultraconserved element sequence capture-to investigate the evolutionary history of an iconic multispecies mutualism: Neotropical acacia ants (Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus gro...
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Non-pollinating consumers of floral resources, especially ants, can disrupt pollination and plant reproductive processes. As an alternative food resource to flowers, extrafloral nectar (EFN) may distract and satiate ants from flowers, thereby reducing their antagonistic effects on plants. Yet, EFN may actually attract and increase ant density on plants, thus increasing the disruption of pollina...
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Scarcity of essential nutrients has led plants to evolve alternative nutritional strategies, such as myrmecotrophy (ant-waste-derived nutrition) and carnivory (invertebrate predation). The carnivorous plant Nepenthes bicalcarata grows in the Bornean peatswamp forests and is believed to have a mutualistic relationship with its symbiotic ant Camponotus schmitzi. However, the benefits provided by ...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Ecology
سال: 2017
ISSN: 0012-9658
DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2036