Interestingly the association between ants and other organisms (orthopods, fungi and plants) may not always involve pollination, although termed as myrmecophily. Myrmecophytes (plants living in association with ants) or ant plants are represented by hundreds of species but mainly concentrated in Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Orchidaceae. They provide shelter and food to ants in the form of beltian bodies, domatia and extrafloral nectaries. The outstanding example is between Acacia cornigera and Pseudomyrmex ants in Africa, wherein the ants protect the plant from herbivores in exchange for food and shelter, by attacking the nose (the most sensitive part) of herbivores which approach Acacia for browsing. Giraffe, however, manages to browse by lapping up leaves by its long tongue, keeping nose away from the attack by ants. More details can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecophily -- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:37 PM, Dr Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > Extrafloral nectaries may act as a source of food to insects too. Lets > say an ant is searching for food and it finds these nectaries and it > searches whole plant for the same and while doing so it pollinates. I > assume it is used basically to attract those insects which cant > fly....but thats an assumption. > They may also produce something offensive to repell insects of produce > some smell that repells other animals too. Kind of protection > mechanism. > Pankaj > > > > > On Dec 19, 6:16 pm, ankush prakash <[email protected]> wrote: > > Nectaries may be *floral* (inside the flower) or *extrafloral* (nectaries > > present on the part of the plant other than the flower. eg.nectaries at > the > > meeting point of petiole and the leaf blade of *Ricinus*). > > As we all know that floral nectaries have a great role in pollination by > > attracting insects *but what kind of advantages do plants experience on > > having extrafloral nectaries? > > > > Regards, > > Ankush Prakash > > * >
