Variation in Extrafloral Nectary Productivity Influences the Ant Foraging

Extrafloral nectar is the main food source offered by plants to predatory ants in most land environments. Although many studies have demonstrated the importance of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) to plant defense against herbivores, the influence of EFNs secretory activity pattern on predatory ants rem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-01, Vol.12 (1), p.e0169492-e0169492
Main Authors: Lange, Denise, Calixto, Eduardo Soares, Del-Claro, Kleber
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animals
Ants
Ants - physiology
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Brazil
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecosystem
Environmental aspects
Extrafloral nectaries
Fabaceae
Feeding Behavior
Flowers & plants
Food and nutrition
Food plants
Food sources
Foraging (Animal feeding behavior)
Formicidae
Herbivores
Herbivory - physiology
Hymenoptera
Lythraceae
Membracidae
Morphology
Nectar
Ochnaceae
Ouratea
Plant communities
Plant Leaves
Plant nectar
Plant Nectar - physiology
Plants
Productivity
Resource partitioning
Seasons
Species
Symbiosis
Vochysiaceae
Zoological research
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Summary:Extrafloral nectar is the main food source offered by plants to predatory ants in most land environments. Although many studies have demonstrated the importance of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) to plant defense against herbivores, the influence of EFNs secretory activity pattern on predatory ants remains yet not fully understood. Here, we verified the relation between the extrafloral nectar production of a plant community in Cerrado in different times of the day, and its attractiveness to ants. The extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) of seven plant species showed higher productivity overnight. Ant abundance was higher in times of large extrafloral nectar production, however, there was no positive relation between ant richness on plants and EFNs productivity. There was temporal resource partitioning among ant species, and it indicates strong resource competition. The nectar productivity varied among plant species and time of the day, and it influenced the visitation patterns of ants. Therefore, EFNs are a key ant-plant interaction driver in the studied system.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0169492