Myrmecochory

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Myrmecochory is a botanical term for "seed dispersal by ants".

A very specific mutualism, up to 30% of the fynbos of the Southern African scrubland plant species rely on this kind of seed dispersal, because Fynbos are regularly burnt by scrub fires that clear away parent plants which results in the return of nutrients back into the ground so that the next generation can grow. Without myrmecochory the fynbos seeds would not be protected from the fire. By being taken underground by the ants, their chance of survival are greatly increased and thus myrmecochory is important to maintaining the very specialised fynbos plants.[1]

It was formerly supposed that the ants mistook the seeds for their own pupae and hence conveyed them to their nests. Further investigation has shown that certain oil bodies or elaiosomes attract the ants and are used by them as food.[2] Interestingly this structure is mimicked by the eggs of several species of stick insects resulting in the eggs being raised in ant nests.[3][4] More than 150 species of European plants are known to have seeds possessing these bodies, and hence transported by ants. The furthest recorded distance of myrmecochory is 180 meters, but the average distance is less than 2 meters. A single colony of ants will convey many thousand seeds during the season.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ de Kock, A. E. & Giliomee, J. H. (1989) A survey of the Argentine ant, Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in South African fynbos. J. Entomol. Soc. S. Africa 52:151-164.
  2. ^ Beattie, A.J. 1985. The Evolutionary Ecology of Ant-Plant Mutualisms. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge U.K.
  3. ^ Hughes, L. & M. Westoby (1992) Capitula on stick insect eggs and elaiosomes on seeds: convergent adaptations for burial by ants. Functional Ecology 6:642-648
  4. ^ S.G. Compton and A.B. Ware. (1991) Ants disperse the elaisosome-bearing eggs of an African stick insect. Psyche 98:207-214.
  5. ^ Whitney, K. D. (200) Dispersal for distance? Acacia ligulata seeds and meat ants Iridomyrmex viridiaeneus. Austral Ecology 27:589–595. PDF
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