Ants

Ants

Ants as Pollinators

An ant, Formica incerta, covered in pollen, feeding at wild carrot (Daucus spp.) nectaries.
An ant (Formica incerta) covered in pollen, feeding at wild
carrot (Daucus spp.) nectaries. Photo copyright Alex Wild,
www.myrmecos.net.

Ants (Order: Hymenoptera; Family: Formicidae) are highly social insects and are often associated in one way or another with plants. Ants sometimes form mutualistic relationships with plants, which may benefit from ant predation on plant herbivores or seed dispersal by ants. However, there are relatively few examples of pollination by ants. 

In some cases, ants actually appear to interfere with pollination, sometimes reducing plant reproductive output: they may consume nectar without providing the plant with any reproductive benefit; they are aggressive toward other insects, including pollinators; they can destroy floral tissue; and their secretions may reduce pollen viability.  Some plants appear to have evolved means of minimizing ant visitation to their flowers. In one example of ant interference with pollination, the ant, Crematogaster scutellaris, is a major predator of the fig wasp, which forms an obligate pollination mutualism with the Mediterranean fig tree (Genus: Ficus L.) (Reference: Complex interactions on fig trees: ants capturing parasitic wasps as possible indirect mutualists of the fig - fig wasp interaction, B. Schatz, M. Proffit, B. V. Rakhi, R. M. Borges, and M. Hossaert-McKey, In OIKOS, Volume 113, pages 344-352, 2006).

Sacrificing For the Good of the Colony

Ants and many bees and wasps are eusocial - meaning they are socially highly organized. Eusocial insects are reproductively specialized, with a reproductive division of labor often involving sterile members caring for the reproductive members. Other defining features of eusociality are overlapping of generations and cooperative care of the young. All ants are eusocial with morphologically different workers and queens. Some bee and wasp species, including honey bees ( Apis mellifera ), carpenter bees ( Xylocopa spp.), bumble bees ( Bombus spp.), paper wasps ( Polistes spp.), and yellowjackets ( Vespula spp.) also exhibit eusociality. Interestingly, humans are also defined as eusocial. (Reference: Social Behavior of Polistine Wasps, Joan E. Strassman, November 8, 2006).

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Myrmecophily: pollination by ants.

Myrmecophilous: plants that are pollinated by ants.