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The plant has evolved to grow a caudex as the benefits of ants outweighs the costs. [4] Ant defecation is beneficial to the plant as the plant can absorb nutrients from it as well as the gases the ants release. Ants have high diets in animal tissue which is correlated to a faster release of nutrients and they trim encroaching vegetation. [4]
They have been used in companion planting as pest control in agricultural and garden situations, and in households. Certain plants have shown effectiveness as topical repellents for haematophagous insects, such as the use of lemon eucalyptus in PMD, but incomplete research and misunderstood applications can produce variable results. [1]
Pseudomyrmex ferruginea ants on a myrmecophyte tree, Vachellia cornigera, the bullhorn acacia of Central America. Myrmecophytes (/ m ər ˈ m ɛ k ə f aɪ t /; literally "ant-plant") are plants that live in a mutualistic association with a colony of ants. There are over 100 different genera of myrmecophytes. [1]
An illustration of the inner chambers of a Myrmecodia plant. Myrmecodia is a genus of epiphytic plants, present in Indochina, Malesia, Papuasia, and Queensland, Australia.It is one of five ant-plant genera in the family Rubiaceae, the others being Anthorrhiza, Hydnophytum, Myrmephytum, and Squamellaria.
Hydnophytum is a genus of epiphytic myrmecophytes (ant plants) native to Southeast Asia, the Pacific region and also extending into Queensland in northern Australia. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek hydnon "tuber", and phyton "plant", after their appearance with their swollen succulent stems.
Myrmecodia beccarii, ant-house plant, is an epiphytic plant on Melaleuca trees and others with spongy bark in the wetlands and mangroves of tropical north Queensland, Australia from Cooktown to Mission Beach. The prickly, swollen caudex develops natural hollows which are colonised by the golden ant (Philidris cordatus) in a symbiotic ...
The condition of the thatched mound is in a constant state of change due to activities by the ants and changes in the environment. [3] To prevent plants from shading the nest, the ants may chew off the bark at the base of plants growing on or nearby the mound. Formic acid is then sprayed into the open layer eventually killing and felling the ...
The plant also produces food bodies that the ants use as their main food source. The ants in turn defend the plant against predation by herbivorous caterpillars and fungi. Adding to the complexity of this food web is the beetle Tarsobaenus letourneauae, a specialized predator which lives in the plant's petioles and feeds upon the ants and their ...