Myrmecochory
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Myrmecochory is a botanical term for "seed dispersal by ants". This is a very specific mutualism. Up to 30% of the fynbos of the Southern African scrubland relies of this kind of seed dispersal to propagate. This is because Fynbos relies on scrub fires to clear away parent plants and to put the few nutrients found in them back into the ground so that the next generation can grow. Without myrmecochory the fynbos seeds would not be protected from the fire by being taken underground by the ants, and would stand a very small chance of surviving the fire. Thus, myrmecochory is important to maintaining the reproductive potential of often very specialised and very speciated fynbos plants.
It was formerly supposed that the ants mistook the seeds for their own pupae and hence conveyed them to their nests. Further investigation has shown that certain oil bodies or elaiosomes attract the ants and are used by them as food. More than 150 species of European plants are known to have seeds possessing these bodies, and hence transported by ants. The record distance seems to be 20 to 70 meters, and a single colony of ants will convey many thousand seeds during the season. #
[edit] References
de Kock, A. E. & Giliomee, J. H. A survey of the Argentine ant, Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in South African fynbos. J. Entomol. Soc. S. Africa 52, 151±164 (1989).
Christian. Consequences of a biological invasion reveal the importance of mutualism for plant communities. Nature Vol. 413 635-638. October 2001
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- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
