Communication in ant-plant symbioses
- Author(s)
- Rumsais Blatrix, Veronika Mayer
- Abstract
Plant communication abilities are the subject of intensive research. They have been particularly investigated in the context of signalling herbivore activity and responding to these signals. In this chapter we review the current knowledge on communication between plants and ants in ant-plant symbioses. Chemistry is the preponderant channel in ant-plant communication. Communication is identified in five contexts: the selection of seeds by ants to sow ant-gardens, the detection of the host plant by founding queens, the discrimination of the host plant by the inhabiting ants to prune exogenous vegetation, the selective continuous patrolling on young shoots by workers, and the damage-induced ant-mediated plant protection. Implications of communication for the evolutionary ecology of ant-plant symbioses are discussed, and directions for future research are given.
- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), CNRS-UMR 5175
- Pages
- 127-158
- No. of pages
- 32
- Publication date
- 2010
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 1060 Biology
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/communication-in-antplant-symbioses(4ab80bfa-aa5f-4c88-8352-57c8eb483ac3).html