When Ants Depend on Plants and Plants Depend on Ants

Abstract

Plants use many strategies to defend themselves against animals that eat plants, also called herbivores. One clever way that some plants, called myrmecophytes, do this is by teaming up with ants. Myrmecophytes are plants that have evolved close relationships with ants. In return for protection from herbivores, myrmecophytes provide ants with food and/or shelter. Sounds like a great deal, right? Yes, but sometimes working with ants can be tricky for a plant. Because myrmecophytes cannot choose the ant bodyguards that they get, they must balance their needs with the needs of their ant defenders. In this article, we introduce a classic example of plants that have beneficial relationships with ants, describe how ants and plants in these relationships depend on each other, and investigate how these ant-dependent plants interact with various ant species.