生态学：受蚂蚁困扰的“恶魔花园”

Ecology: 'Devil's gardens' bedevilled by ants.

作者信息

Frederickson Megan E, Greene Michael J, Gordon Deborah M

机构信息

Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020, USA.

出版信息

Nature. 2005 Sep 22;437(7058):495-6. doi: 10.1038/437495a.

DOI:10.1038/437495a

PMID:16177778

Abstract

'Devil's gardens' are large stands of trees in the Amazonian rainforest that consist almost entirely of a single species, Duroia hirsuta, and, according to local legend, are cultivated by an evil forest spirit. Here we show that the ant Myrmelachista schumanni, which nests in D. hirsuta stems, creates devil's gardens by poisoning all plants except its host plants with formic acid. By killing these other plants, M. schumanni provides its colonies with abundant nest sites--a long-lasting benefit as colonies can live for 800 years.

摘要

“恶魔花园”是亚马逊雨林中大片的树林，几乎完全由单一物种多毛杜若（Duroia hirsuta）构成。根据当地传说，这些树林是由一个邪恶的森林精灵培育而成的。我们在此表明，栖息在多毛杜若茎干中的舒氏密蚁（Myrmelachista schumanni）通过用甲酸毒害除其寄主植物之外的所有植物来创造恶魔花园。通过杀死其他植物，舒氏密蚁为其蚁群提供了丰富的筑巢地点——这是一项持久的益处，因为蚁群可以存活800年。