A Tococa ant plant grows in a devil's garden. Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography - Insect Pictures

Plants and Ants

Images of interactions among ants and plants, two of the most dominant terrestrial organisms.

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Partners in a devil's garden: Myrmelachista ants and the Clidemia plants they live in. The swellings on the plant stem are hollow domatia that house the ant colony.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Myrmelachista workers with brood and mealybugs inside a domatium of a Tococa plant.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Partners in a devil's garden: Myrmelachista ants and the Clidemia plants they live in. The swellings on the plant stem are hollow domatia that house the ant colony.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Myrmelachista workers with brood and mealybugs inside a domatium of a Tococa plant. This ant's gaster is swollen with honeydew collected from the mealybugs.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

A Tococa ant plant grows in a devil's garden.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Clidemia bush growing in a devil's garden, a monoculture caused by symbiotic Myrmelachista ants that live in the plants' domatia and kill saplings of competing species.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Crematogaster acrobat ant workers taking nectar from a lily. Ants are generally poor pollinators, so they are not the intended recipient of the nectar.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia

An Inga tree offers up nectar to a Dolichoderus bispinosus forager.

Armenia, Belize

A Tococa ant plant grows in a devil's garden.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

A Tococa ant plant grows in a devil's garden.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

A Tococa ant plant grows in a devil's garden.

Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador

Canon EOS 7D |

More details: exif |

Original size: 4920x3288 |

Current: 800x535 |

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Keywords: devils garden melastomataceae tropical ecology ant plants myrmelachista

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all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013

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