Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Red de Ecología Funcional, Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2018 May;20(3):525-530. doi: 10.1111/plb.12715. Epub 2018 Mar 25.
Most plants that inhabit ant-gardens (AGs) are cultivated by the ants. Some orchids occur in AGs; however, it is not known whether their seeds are dispersed by AG ants because most orchid seeds are tiny and dispersed by wind. We performed in situ seed removal experiments, in which we simultaneously provided Azteca gnava ants with seeds of three AG orchid species and three other AG epiphyte species (Bromeliaceae, Cactaceae and Gesneriaceae), as well as the non-AG orchid Catasetum integerrimum. The seeds most removed were those of the bromeliad Aechmea tillandsioides and the gesneriad Codonanthe uleana, while seeds of AG orchids Coryanthes picturata, Epidendrum flexuosum and Epidendrum pachyrachis were less removed. The non-AG orchid was not removed. Removal values were positively correlated with the frequency of the AG epiphytes in the AGs, and seeds of AG orchids were larger than those of non-AG orchids, which should favour myrmecochory. Our data show that Azt. gnava ants discriminate and preferentially remove seeds of the AG epiphytes. We report for the first time the removal of AG orchid seeds by AG ants in Neotropical AGs.
大多数栖息在蚁丘（AGs）中的植物都是由蚂蚁栽培的。一些兰花出现在 AGs 中；然而，尚不清楚它们的种子是否被 AG 蚂蚁传播，因为大多数兰花种子很小，是通过风传播的。我们进行了原位种子去除实验，在实验中，我们同时向 Azteca gnava 蚂蚁提供了三种 AG 兰花和三种其他 AG 附生植物（凤梨科、仙人掌科和苦苣苔科）以及非 AG 兰花 Catasetum integerrimum 的种子。被去除最多的种子是凤梨科植物 Aechmea tillandsioides 和苦苣苔科植物 Codonanthe uleana 的种子，而 AG 兰花 Coryanthes picturata、Epidendrum flexuosum 和 Epidendrum pachyrachis 的种子则较少被去除。非 AG 兰花则没有被去除。去除值与 AGs 中 AG 附生植物的频率呈正相关，并且 AG 兰花的种子比非 AG 兰花的种子更大，这应该有利于蚂蚁传播。我们的数据表明，Azt. gnava 蚂蚁会识别并优先去除 AG 附生植物的种子。我们首次报道了 AG 蚂蚁在新热带 AGs 中传播 AG 兰花种子。
