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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 ...
Tapinoma sessile is a species of small ant that goes by the common names odorous house ant, sugar ant, stink ant, and coconut ant. [1] Their colonies are polydomous (consisting of multiple nests) and polygynous (containing multiple reproducing queens ).
Carpenter ant colony in an old fir stump Carpenter ants in a tree Pileated Woodpecker holes in a tree occupied by carpenter ants Sawdust like shavings from carpenter ants. Carpenter ants work to build the nests that house eggs in environments with usually high humidity due to their sensitivity to environmental humidity.
Myrmecotrophy, meaning "ant-fed," is the ability of plants to absorb nutrients from debris piles left by ant nests or, in the case of Nepenthes bicalcarata, from ant egesta. [13] The tropical tree Cecropia peltata obtains 98% of its nitrogen from the waste deposited by its ant counterparts.
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 ...
"It's hard to describe, but there's no crawlspace in that part of the house," Andrew explains. "It's basically like roof, insulation, and then ceiling—there's not a lot of space in between."
Of the more than 2,000 described species, many are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases. Some ants live in symbiotic relationships with them, protecting them from predators and feeding off the honeydew which they excrete.
Finally, current work focusing on ants' role in nutrient supplementation for plants has shown that in many ant-plant relationships, nutrient flow is bidirectional. One study has estimated that while 80% of the carbon in the bodies of Azteca spp. workers is supplied by the host tree ( Cecropia spp.), 90% of the Cecropia tree's nitrogen was ...