Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, United States; Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, PO Box 319, Crested Butte, CO 81224, United States.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, United States.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2019 Apr;32:98-103. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2018.12.003. Epub 2019 Jan 3.
Ants are ecologically dominant members of terrestrial communities. Ant foraging is often strongly associated with plants and depends upon associative learning of chemicals in the environment. As a result, plant chemicals can affect ant behaviors and, in so doing, have strong multi-trophic indirect effects. Plant chemicals mediate ant behaviors in the contexts of floral visitation, seed dispersal and predation, leaf cutting, interactions with ant-mutualist host plants, interactions with mutualist and prey insects in plant canopies, and plant predation of ants by carnivorous plants. Here, we review what is known about these differing contexts in which plant chemicals influence ant behavior, the mechanisms by which ants are affected by plant chemicals, and future directions within these topics.
蚂蚁是陆地群落中具有生态优势的成员。蚂蚁觅食通常与植物密切相关，并依赖于对环境中化学物质的联想学习。因此，植物化学物质会影响蚂蚁的行为，并因此产生强烈的多营养间接影响。植物化学物质在花卉访问、种子传播和捕食、切叶、与蚂蚁共生宿主植物的相互作用、植物冠层中与互惠和猎物昆虫的相互作用以及食虫植物对蚂蚁的捕食等方面调节蚂蚁的行为。在这里，我们回顾了植物化学物质影响蚂蚁行为的这些不同背景，蚂蚁受植物化学物质影响的机制，以及这些主题内的未来方向。
