Ant species that protect figs against other ants: Result of territoriality induced by a mutualistic homopteran

Abstract

:Hymenoptera pollinators and figs (ripe or unripe) of Ficus vallis-choudae are protected from the predatory activity of myrmicine ants (Atopomyrmex mocquerisi; Crematogaster clariventris; Crematogaster sp.) by other ants (Camponotus acvapimensis and Camponotus brutus; Formicinae) who attack neither unripe figs nor the pollinator. On trees occupied by Atopomyrmex and Crematogaster, and on trees invaded by columns of workers after recruitment by scouts, the predatory activity begins when the fig wasps emerge. Then, the ants attack unripe figs (asynchronization in ripeness), destroying whole figs of certain trees. The male function of the trees through pollen dispersal by fig wasps is, therefore, severely reduced, while the female function (seed dispersal) is affected only on unripe figs before fig wasp emergence. We recorded 13 ant species on the 73 Ficus vallis-choudae of the Batchenga savanna (Cameroon) studied, but only the five previously cited species were able to occupy an entire fig tree. The three Myrmicinae which have a status of dominant (large colony size; strong territoriality vis-à-vis other dominant species; can tolerate non-dominant species) tended scale insects. Both Camponotus species (and the eight other ant species) are non-dominant (small colony size), but are able to occupy a whole tree under certain conditions (here, when they tend the tettigometrid Hilda undata) and to be territorial. Their status corresponds, therefore, to that of sub-dominant. Tests of aggressiveness showed that each ant species is aggressive towards alien conspecifics. C. brutus individuals were tolerated on fig trees occupied by Atopomyrmex mocquerisi or by Crematogaster clariventris, while workers of both latter species, who do not tolerate one another, were not tolerated on fig trees occupied by C. brutus. In this situation, the cost-benefit for the trees depends on the ant species that occupies their foliage; C. brutus, when tending tettigometrids, is advantageous. There is, therefore, an indirect influence of the tettigometrids on the production of fig pollinating wasps and seeds.