Bologna, Audrey

Detrain, Claire

English

Sydney eScholarship

 OR048 Extinction of ants' feeding and social foraging on myrmecochorous seeds Audrey Bologna, Claire Detrain   Myrmecochory - seed dispersal by ants - is a mutualistic interaction in which seeds are dispersed by ants, who consume a nutrient-rich appendage - the elaiosome - as a reward. Yet, real benefits received by ants are still unclear since elaiosome consumption can lead to a positive or a negative impact on colony fitness. Consequently, harvesting of myrmecochorous seeds is expected to be a dynamic process in which ant-plant interaction evolves depending on the outcomes obtained by each partners. We studied the stability of the association between Myrmica rubra ants/Viola odorata seeds at short and long time scale. While seed harvesting was complete on the 1st week, seed exploitation by ants decreased on the 2nd week until a complete extinction during the following 3 weeks. Extinction is a persistent phenomenon which lasted at least 7 weeks and is specific since it was not generalized to other myrmecochorous seeds (i.e. Chelidonium majus) or to other individually transportable items (i.e. fruit flies). The extinction of seeds exploitation was related to a decrease in the flow of foragers arriving at the food source as well as to a reduced probability for an ant contacting a seed to retrieve it. A drastic decrease in elaiosome consumption during the 5 weeks of exposition was concurrently observed with this seed harvesting extinction Even if chemical cues (e.g. oleic acid) stimulate ants to gather diaspores, ants faced with toxic compounds (alkaloids) or energetically non beneficial elaiosomes could, by gustatory learning, modulate their behavior towards the cessation of seeds exploitation. Myrmecochory appears as a complex process in which the ability of ants to evaluate the nutritive value of elaiosomes, and then by gustatory learning to accordingly adapt their foraging strategy, is of first importance for the stability of this association between the social and the plant partner. 

Extinction of ants' feeding and social foraging on myrmecochorous seeds

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Extinction of ants’ feeding and social foraging on myrmecochorous seeds

https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/10941/2/OR048.pdf

Extinction of ants' feeding and social foraging on myrmecochorous seeds

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