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Ant benefits in a seed dispersal mutualism

  • Plant Animal Interactions
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Abstract

Myrmecochorous plant seeds have nutrient rich appendages, elaiosomes, which induce some ant species to carry the seeds back to their nest where the elaiosome is consumed and the seed is discarded unharmed. The benefits to plants of dispersal of their seeds in this way have been well documented, but the benefits to the ants from consuming the elaiosomes have rarely been measured and are less clear. Ant benefits from myrmecochory were investigated in a laboratory experiment using the ant Myrmica ruginodis and seeds of Ulex species. To separate the effects of elaiosome consumption on the development of newly produced larvae versus existing larvae, ten ‘Queenright’ colonies containing a queen were compared to ten ‘Queenless’ colonies. Six measures of colony fitness over a complete annual cycle were taken: sexual production, larval weight and number, pupal weight and number, and worker survival. Queenless colonies fed with elaiosomes produced 100.0±29.3 (mean ± SE) of larvae compared to non-elaiosome fed colonies which produced 49.6±19.0; an increase of 102%. Larval weight increased in both Queenright and Queenless colonies. In colonies fed with elaiosomes, larvae weighed 1.02±0.1 mg, but in non-elaiosome fed colonies larvae weighed 0.69±0.1 mg; an increase of 48%. The food supplement provided by Ulex elaiosomes was trivial in energetic terms, under the conditions of an ample diet, suggesting that these effects might be due to the presence of essential nutrients. Chemical analysis of Ulex elaiosomes showed the presence of four essential fatty acids and four essential sterols for ants.

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Acknowledgements

This experiment and methodology complies with the current laws of the UK. We would like to thank Graham Elmes, Judith Wardlaw and Michael Fenner for their advice and helpful criticism, Sophie Everett for her advice on chemistry and all the students who helped feed the colonies. This study was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, research studentship to Nicola Gammans, NER/S/A/2002/11078.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Winfrith Technology Centre, Winfrith Newburgh, Dorset, DT2 8ZD, UK

    Nicola Gammans, James M. Bullock & Karsten Schönrogge

  2. The University of Southampton, Biomedical Sciences building, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton, SO16 7PX, UK

    Nicola Gammans

Authors
  1. Nicola Gammans
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  2. James M. Bullock
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  3. Karsten Schönrogge
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Correspondence to Nicola Gammans.

Additional information

Communicated by Bernhard Stadler

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Gammans, N., Bullock, J.M. & Schönrogge, K. Ant benefits in a seed dispersal mutualism. Oecologia 146, 43–49 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0154-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0154-9

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