SYMBIOSIS: MUTUALISM

Ant trees:the ants and the acacia tree

Ant trees: Cordia nodosaand: Allomerus octoarticulatus

Cordia nodosa

Live or dead, hollow stem nodes are nest sites for ants

The tumultuous relationship between the ant-plant C. Nodosa and the ant species Allomerus octoarticulatus.The relationship between these two species is much like that of other ants and ant-plants, until it comes time for the plant to reproduce. When Nodosa begins to flower, the ants attack the buds, lopping them off before they get a chance to spread seeds. The ant, in effect, sterilizes its gracious host.

Allomerus octoarticulatus sterilizes flower of Cordia nodosa.

Ant-vines In the kerangas forest of Indonesia

Dry tropical forests on nutrient-poor soils.

Kerangas forests Indonesia

Dischidia major (epiphyte!)Malayan urn plant

Dischidia major(ant plant)

Philidris ants on surface of leaf of Malayan urn plant.

Philidris ants, their eggs and larvae inside leaf of Malayan urn plant.

Leaf-harvesting antsand fungus garden

Largest “herbivores” of tropical forest.

Part of a leaf-cutter ant nest

Partially excavated nest of Atta colony.

Atta cephalotesNote small guard ants riding on the leaves

(gongylidia)

Amensalism between bacterium and Escovopsis fungus

Science 20 November 2009, 326 p1120.

Phorid flies atttack ant.

Nepenthes bicalcarata pitcher plant vine eats insects, but its hollow tendrils are homes for tiny ants that have coevolved to be safe in the pitcher of ...

Swimming ants and the Pitcher plant (Borneo).

Camponotus ants nest in the tendrils of the tropical Pitcher plant (vine).

Camponotus ants uniquely can walk/crawl on the extremely slick wall of the Pitcher plant pitcher trap.

Camponotus schmitzi ant swims in the pitcher pool and hauls out drowned prey.The ant's feet have adapted over eons to climb safely from the pool.

Leaf-harvesting ants and fungal infection

Fungi alter the behavior of ants that they infectBefore the fungus-infected ants die, they attach themselves (by biting) to the underside of leaves that are ideally located for fungal reproduction: on the cooler and moister north side of trees, near (but not on) the ground.

Adaptive social immunity in leaf-cutting ants These social ants protect each other from fungal infection by grooming each other, much like monkeys do.

Nematode worm turns ant host into ripe red berry

Cephalotes atratus

C. Atratus infected withMyrmeconema neotropicum