Ant-fed plants: comparison between three geophytic myrmecophytes

Abstract

In their association with myrmecophytes (i.e. plants that shelter a limited number of ant species in hollow structures), ants sometimes provide only poor biotic protection for their host plants, but may supply them with nutrients (myrmecotrophy). We studied three geophytic myrmecophytes growing in the understorey of Guianian rain forests. Allomerus ants build spongy-looking galleries rich in detritus and insect debris over the stems of their host plants [ Cordia nodosa Lamark (Boraginaceae) and Hirtella physophora Martius & Zuccharini (Chrysobalanaceae)], while Pheidole minutula Mayr colonies deposit their waste in the leaf pouches of their host plant [ Maieta guianensis Aublet (Melastomataceae)]. This waste is more nitrogen-rich than that found in the Allomerus galleries, themselves containing more nitrogen than the plant leaves. Using stable isotope analysis we noted a significant difference in d 15 N between ant-occupied and unoccupied plants only for Maieta , for which 80% of the host plant nitrogen is derived from Pheidole waste. Experiments on all three plants using a 15 N-supplemented solution of NH 4 Cl confirmed these results, with an increase in this isotope noted between control and experimental plants only for Maieta . The internal surfaces of Maieta leaf pouches bear protuberances whose likely role is to absorb nutrients from the Pheidole waste. The alternative hypothesis, that these protuberances play a role in provisioning ants, was rejected after comparing their structure with those of extrafloral nectaries and food bodies in a histological study.

Preliminary Study on Immunomodulatory Effect of Sarang-Semut Tubers <i>Myrmecodia tuberosa</i> and <i>Myrmecodia pendens</i>

“…As decribed by Beattie (1989), ant waste materials translocation to host plant do exist. In other reports, Solano and Dejean (2004) and Defossez et al (2010) revealed that ants provide their host plant with nitrogen, resource which is relatively low in ephyhyte like Sarang-Semut plant. These phenomena suggest the possibility of finding ant's metabolites enrich the plant extract.…”

A novel resource–service mutualism between bats and pitcher plants

“…The woolly bats (K. h. hardwickii) that we observed solely used aerial pitchers of N. r. elongata as daytime roosts, providing the plant with nitrogen in an nitrogen-deprived environment. This is an unusual case of an animal -plant mutualism in which nutrients are supplied by the animal and not vice versa [12].…”

Measuring the trophic ecology of ants using stable isotopes

“…army ants, Hirosawa et al, 2000), and a preponderance of omnivores (Blüthgen et al, 2003;Davidson et al, 2003). Recently, studies have utilized stable isotopes to elucidate the trophic ecology of ants including temporal variation in diet (Fisher et al, 1990;Mooney and Tillberg, in press), the nature of ant-plant symbioses (Treseder et al, 1995;Sagers et al, 2000;Solano and Dejean, 2004;Tillberg, 2004;Trimble and Sagers, 2004), and the community ecology of ants (Blüthgen et al, 2003;Davidson et al, 2003;Tillberg and Breed, 2004).…”