Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant

@article{Chomicki2016ObligatePF,
  title={Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant},
  author={Guillaume Chomicki and Susanne S. Renner},
  journal={Nature Plants},
  year={2016},
  volume={2}
}
Many epiphytic plants have associated with ants to gain nutrients. Here, we report a novel type of ant–plant symbiosis in Fiji where one ant species actively and exclusively plants the seeds and fertilizes the seedlings of six species of Squamellaria (Rubiaceae). Comparison with related facultative ant plants suggests that such farming plays a key role in mutualism stability by mitigating the critical re-establishment step. 
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27 Citations
Background Citations
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Methods Citations
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Results Citations
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27 Citations

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A CASE FOR STUDYING BIOTIC INTERACTIONS IN EPIPHYTE ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Squamellaria : Plants domesticated by ants

Plants across 50 families have evolved modified structures to host ants in return for defense or nutrients—sometimes both (Chomicki & Renner, 2015). Recently some astounding discoveries have been…

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Abstract Farming of fungi by ants, termites, or beetles has led to ecologically successful societies fueled by industrial‐scale food production. Another type of obligate insect agriculture in Fiji…

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The study reveals that mutualistic strategy profoundly affects the pace of morphological change in traits involved in the interaction and suggests that shifts in partners’ relative abundances may frequently drive reversions of generalist mutualisms to autonomy.

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