| Literature DB >> 16177778 |
Megan E Frederickson1, Michael J Greene, Deborah M Gordon.
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.Entities:
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Year: 2005 PMID： 16177778 DOI： 10.1038/437495a
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nature ISSN： 0028-0836 Impact factor: 49.962