Ant-Plant Interactions

by Huxley, Camilla R.; Cutler, David F.

• ISBN13: 9780198546399
• ISBN10: 0198546394
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1991-10-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book presents current research on all types of ant-plant interactions, and concentrates on understanding these often complex relationships in evolutionary and ecological terms. The range of interactions varies from herbivory (leaf-cutter ants) to complex symbiosis. Many ants prey on plant pests, thus protecting the plant from harm, receiving in exchange nectar and/or nest sites. In some cases the ants tend and protect other insects such as butterfly larvae or Homopterans (which include the aphids and cicadas) which may benefit the ants at the expense of both the host plant and the other insects. Some ants are known to be seed dispersers, and in at least one plant (cocoa) they appear to affect rates of pollination. A significant proportion of these interactions exhibit a high degree of mutualism, making this book part of a growing literature on the ecological determinants of mutualistic behaviour. The thirty-seven chapters by more than fifty contributors range in geographical coverage from northern and southern temperate zones, to the New World tropics, to Australia and South-east Asia. The emphasis throughout, even in the more descriptive chapters, is on possible explanations for observed phenomena. Workers in ecology, evolution, and behavior will welcome this compendium of information on a subject that has become a modern testing ground for evolutionary ecology.

Table of Contents

Ants and Plants: A Diversity of Interaction

Antagonistic Interactions - The Leaf-Cutter Ants

An Introduction to the Fungus-Growing Ants

The Selection and Detoxification of Plant Material by Fungus-Growing Ants

Resource Quality and Cost in the Foraging of Leaf-Cutter Ants

Leaf-Cutter Ant Assemblies: Effects of Latitude, Vegetation, and Behaviour

Ant-Plant Interactions Involving Herbivorous Insects

Effects of Ants on Temperate Woodland Trees

The Interaction Between Red Wood Ants, Cinara Aphids, and Pines: A Ghost of Mutualism Past?

Conditional Interactions in Ant-Plant-Herbivore Mutualisms

Why Are So Few Aphids Ant-Tended?

Effects of Ant-Homopteran Systems on Fig-Figwasp Interactions

Variation in the Attractiveness of Lycaenid Butterfly Larvae to Ants

Evolutionary and Ecological Patterns in Myremecophilous Riodinids

Extrafloral Nectary-Mediated Interactions

Phylogeny, Lifeform, and Habitat Dependence of Ant-Defended Plants in a Panamanian Forest

The Ant Community Associated with Extrafloral Nectaries in the Brazilian Cerrados

Extrafloral Nectaries of Herbs and Trees: Modelling the Interaction with Ants and Parasitoids

Bracken and Ants: Why is There No Mutualism?

Some Associations Between Ants and Euphorbs in Tropical Australasia

Symbiosis Between Plants and Ants

The Association Between Macaranga Trees and Ants in South-east Asia, Brigitte Fiala

Azteca Ants in Cecropia Trees: Taxonomy, Colony Structure, and Behavior

Symbiosis of Ants with Cecropia As a Function of Light Regime

Phylogenetic Analysis of the Evolution of a Mutualism: Leonardoxa (Caesalpiniaceae) and Its Associated Ants

Phylogenetic Analysis of Psuedomyrmecine Ants associated with Domatia-Bearing Plants

Myrmecotropy: Origins, Operation and Importance

Cavity Structure and Function in the Tuberous Epiphytic Rubiaceae

Parasitism of Ant-Plant Mutualisms and the Novel Case of Piper

Ants, Plants, and Beetles: A Triangular Relationship

Pollination, Ant-Exclusion and Dispersal

The Evidence for, and Importance of, Ant Pollination

The Greasy Pole Syndrome

Seed Dispersal by Ants: Comparing Infertile with Fertile Soils

Myrmecocheory in Cape Fynbos

Light Environments, Stage-Structure, and Dispersal Syndromes of Costa Rican Marantaceae

Ground Beetles and Seed Dispersal of the Myrmecochorous Plant Trillium tschonoskii (Liliaceae)

Seed Harvesting by Ants in Australia

Ants, Vegetation Ecology, and the Future of Ant-Plant Research

The Influence of Mound Building Ants on British Lowland Vegetation

A Neotropical, Rainforest Canopy, Ant Community: Some Ecological Considerations

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