Ants contribute to pollination but not to reproduction in a rare calcareous grassland forb

PeerJ
Michael RostásMichael Riedel

Abstract

The number of plants pollinated by ants is surprisingly low given the abundance of ants and the fact that they are common visitors of angiosperms. Generally ants are considered as nectar robbers that do not provide pollination service. We studied the pollination system of the endangered dry grassland forb Euphorbia seguieriana and found two ant species to be the most frequent visitors of its flowers. Workers of Formica cunicularia carried five times more pollen than smaller Tapinoma erraticum individuals, but significantly more viable pollen was recovered from the latter. Overall, the viability of pollen on ant cuticles was significantly lower (p < 0.001)-presumably an antibiotic effect of the metapleural gland secretion. A marking experiment suggested that ants were unlikely to facilitate outcrossing as workers repeatedly returned to the same individual plant. In open pollinated plants and when access was given exclusively to flying insects, fruit set was nearly 100%. In plants visited by ants only, roughly one third of flowers set fruit, and almost none set fruit when all insects were excluded. The germination rate of seeds from flowers pollinated by flying insects was 31 ± 7% in contrast to 1 ± 1% resulting from ant pollinat...Continue Reading

References

Jun 21, 1974·Science·J C Hickman
Oct 10, 2009·Plant Signaling & Behavior·Clara de Vega
Dec 14, 2011·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Robert R JunkerSybille B Unsicker
Feb 1, 1984·TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik·J Heslop-HarrisonK R Shivanna

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Citations

Feb 15, 2019·The New Phytologist·Javier ValverdeJosé María Gómez
Apr 1, 2020·Annals of Botany·Nicola DelnevoWilliam D Stock
Jun 6, 2020·Plant Biology·M A Munguía-Rosas, M E Jácome-Flores

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