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Lycaenid-tending ants can contribute to fitness gain of the infested host plants by providing nutrients

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Abstract

Ground-nesting ant species are known to promote plant growth by soil nutrient enhancement. Camponotus compressus ants regularly visit the extrafloral nectary-bearing, lycaenid-infested cowpea, Vigna unguiculata plants and construct a shelter for the lycaenid caterpillars at the plant base. The present study shows that ants may influence the overall fitness of the infested cowpea plants by providing nutrients via soil and foliar pathways. Total carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous content of ant constructed shelter (ACS) soil of the lycaenid-harbouring plants were assessed, microbes from the ACS soil were isolated and their plant growth promotion ability was evaluated. Nitrate content of the ant faecal matter was estimated and overall plant fitness was assessed in terms of its growth and yield. The results revealed higher content of total C, N and P in the debris and chamber soil of ACS as compared to the control soil from the base of ant-excluded plants. The microbes isolated from the ACS and ant nest soil were found to possess plant growth promotion abilities. Ant faecal matter was found to contain substantial amount of nitrate. The ant-included, lycaenid-infested plants as well as those lacking the caterpillars demonstrated significantly higher number of pods, number of seeds per pod, root length, shoot length, plant height, number of leaves, plant fresh and dry weight as compared to the control plants. Lycaenid caterpillar tending ant species with a high propensity for visiting plants thus have the potential to increase plant fitness by increasing nutrient availability via multiple pathways.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. Funding support from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (File No. : 09/013 (0536)/ 2014- EMR-I), New Delhi, India, is gratefully acknowledged. We are thankful to Prof. N.K. Dubey for kindly permitting the field studies in the botanical garden of Banaras Hindu University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Priya Aradhya Ekka & Neelkamal Rastogi

  2. Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Hema Singh

  3. Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Harikesh B. Singh & Shatrupa Ray

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  1. Priya Aradhya Ekka
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  2. Neelkamal Rastogi
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Contributions

Priya A. Ekka has contributed by conducting the field studies and experiments, and by writing the article. Neelkamal Rastogi made the contribution in designing the study and made appropriate corrections in the article. Hema Singh has contributed by extending the laboratory facilities for soil nutrient analysis and for assessing the plant growth parameters. Harikesh B. Singh has contributed by extending the laboratory facilities for study of microbes and their plant growth promotion ablates. Shatrupa Ray has made the contribution by helping in the isolation of microbes and in conducting microbe related experiments.

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Correspondence to Neelkamal Rastogi.

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Communicated by Jouni Sorvari and Heikki Hokkanen.

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Appendices

Appendix

Appendix 1

See Table 3.

Table 3 Plant growth promotion ability of the bacterial isolates from the four categories of soil collected from cowpea plant base
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Appendix 2

See Table 4.

Table 4 Plant growth promotion ability of the bacterial isolates from Camponotus compressus main and satellite nest debris pile and chamber soil
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Appendix 3

See Table 5.

Table 5 Growth parameters, i.e. root length, shoot length and plant height (cm), fresh and dry weight (g plant−1) of root, shoot, leaves and plants, number of branches, leaves and pods plant−1 and seeds pod−1 of ant-excluded, ant-included (lycaenid absent) and ant-included (lycaenid present) Vigna unguiculata plants
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Ekka, P.A., Rastogi, N., Singh, H. et al. Lycaenid-tending ants can contribute to fitness gain of the infested host plants by providing nutrients. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 14, 745–757 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-020-09785-2

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