Abstract
Herbivory significantly impacts the growth and reproduction of plants. Many plants have developed ways to defend against herbivores and one common strategy is to associate with ants. In many ant-plant interactions, ants are known to protect their host. However, in the Neotropical ant-plant genus Triplaris, the benefits provided by associated ants have never been tested. Many Pseudomyrmex spp. ants are obligate inhabitants of Triplaris spp. trees. In this study, Triplaris americana was studied in association with Pseudomyrmex dendroicus, an ant highly specific to its host (it has not been collected from any other species of Triplaris). Ant exclusion experiments were carried out to assess the protective effect of ants. In addi tion, ant behavior was monitored in control plants to study the mechanisms by which ants might confer protection against herbivory. Ant removal led to a more than 15-fold increase in herbivory. Pseudomyrmex dendroicus are active at all times of day and night and aggressively and efficiently remove insect herbivores from their host.
Highlights
Herbivory can have significant negative effects on plant fitness
This has been demonstrated in numerous other myrmecophytes, proving that there is a benefit from the effectiveness of the ant defense against herbivores (e.g., Chamberlain and Holland 2009, Rosumek et al 2009, Trager et al 2010)
Ant-exclusion experiments revealed that the myrmecophyte Triplaris americana is significantly affected by herbivory in the absence of its symbiotic associate Pseudomyrmex dendroicus
Summary
Herbivory can have significant negative effects on plant fitness. Both the incidence and the impact of damage can vary with leaf ontogeny and the specific tissue being attacked, and herbivory can result in decreased survivorship and reproductive output (Marquis 1984, Spotswood et al 2002). Myrmecophytes (i.e., plants sheltering the colonies of a limited number of ‘plantant’ species in hollow structures called domatia and sometimes providing them with food in the form of extrafloral nectar and food bodies) are pervasive and very diverse in the Tropics (Chomicki and Renner 2015). This is a mutualistic association as, in return for being housed and sometimes fed, plant-ants protect their host myrmecophyte from encroaching vegetation, herbivores and pathogens, and/or provide them with nutrients (i.e., myrmecotrophy) (Rico-Gray and Oliveira 2007, Mayer et al 2014)
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