| Tetraponera tessmanni | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Genus: | Tetraponera |
| Species: | T. tessmanni |
| Binomial name | |
| Tetraponera tessmanni (Stitz, 1910) | |
Tetraponera tessmanni is a species of ant in the subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae, which is native to tropical Central Africa, [1] where it inhabits the hollow stems of the liana Vitex thyrsiflora .
Tetraponera tessmanni has a symbiotic relationship with Vitex thyrsiflora , a liana of the tropical rain forests of West and Central Africa, which has hollow cavities in which the ant makes its nest. With most species of ant that live in association with trees, the ants prune the foliage of adjoining trees to prevent other ecologically dominant arboreal ants from invading their territory. That is not the case with T. tessmanni, because the very nature of a liana means it is constant contact with other vegetation. Instead, the ant has developed certain traits that enable it to maintain dominance and V. thyrsiflora can be considered a specialized myrmecophyte, because all mature specimens are found to be colonised by the ant. [2]
Shoots of V. thyrsiflora consists of a series of nodes, and the ants create entrance holes at the node junctions, and link the nodes internally by chewing holes between them to form their domatia (specialised chambers adapted for habitation by ants). The nodes initially contain pith but this dries up in older shoots. Other insects are associated with plants and may try to colonise the nodes of V. thyrsiflora, but T. tessmanni is the only ant to create entrance holes (although this is also done by the beetle Ischnolanguria concolor ). T. tessmanni is a very aggressive ant and seems capable of establishing its dominance over the liana, which may be 50 m (164 ft) or so long. [2] The ant colony may occupy the whole liana as it grows and have multiple queens. The ants patrol the liana and drive away herbivorous insects, but they do not feed on honeydew or nectar, nor do they leave their host liana to obtain food elsewhere, but they seem to extract all their nourishment from the interior of the nodes which they rasp to create wound callus. [2]
The ant larvae have their heads orientated ventrally, fleshy appendages on the thoracic and first abdominal segments, and hooked hairs on their dorsal surfaces, by which they are hung from the roof of the domatia. These appendages seem to act as a sort of gland known as an "exudia", with the larvae being fed by mouth and producing a fatty exudate from the gland which is licked off by the workers. [3]
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists.
Weaver ants or green ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae. Weaver ants live in trees and are known for their unique nest building behaviour where workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk. Colonies can be extremely large consisting of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and containing more than half a million workers. Like many other ant species, weaver ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects (Hemiptera). Weaver ant workers exhibit a clear bimodal size distribution, with almost no overlap between the size of the minor and major workers. The major workers are approximately 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) in length and the minors approximately half the length of the majors. Major workers forage, defend, maintain, and expand the colony whereas minor workers tend to stay within the nests where they care for the brood and 'milk' scale insects in or close to the nests.
Allomerus decemarticulatus is an Amazonian ant species found in the tropics of South America. This species is most notable for the workers’ complex and extreme predatory behavior, which involves a symbiosis with both a plant and fungal species. They live in leaf pockets of a host plant species, Hirtella physophora. These leaf pockets are areas inside of the plant between the leaves and the stem. Each colony, which consists of about 1,200 workers, inhabits a single tree; however, the ants are spread among the leaf pockets, with typically 40 workers per pocket. Their diet primarily consists of large insects that are captured on the plant, but they also eat some kinds of food bodies produced by the plant as well as its nectar. They are able to capture their prey, which is much larger than themselves, by constructing a platform that acts as a trap for the unsuspecting prey. The ants hide in the trap and attack when any insect lands on it. This technique is an example of ambush predation.
Myrmecophytes are plants that live in a mutualistic association with a colony of ants. There are over 100 different genera of myrmecophytes. These plants possess structural adaptations that provide ants with food and/or shelter. These specialized structures include domatia, food bodies, and extrafloral nectaries. In exchange for food and shelter, ants aid the myrmecophyte in pollination, seed dispersal, gathering of essential nutrients, and/or defense. Specifically, domatia adapted to ants may be called myrmecodomatia.
Vachellia cornigera, commonly known as bullhorn acacia, is a swollen-thorn tree native to Mexico and Central America. The common name of "bullhorn" refers to the enlarged, hollowed-out, swollen thorns that occur in pairs at the base of leaves, and resemble the horns of a steer. In Yucatán it is called "subín", in Panamá the locals call them "cachito". The trees are commonly found in wet lowlands
Vachellia collinsii, previously Acacia collinsii, is a species of flowering plant native to Central America and parts of Africa.
Vachellia drepanolobium, more commonly known as Acacia drepanolobium or whistling thorn, is a swollen-thorn acacia native to East Africa. The whistling thorn grows up to 6 meters tall. It produces a pair of straight spines at each node, some of which have large bulbous bases. These swollen spines are naturally hollow and occupied by any one of several symbiotic ant species. The common name of the plant is derived from the observation that when wind blows over bulbous spines in which ants have made entry and exit holes, they produce a whistling noise.
A domatium is a tiny chamber that houses arthropods, produced by a plant.
The acacia ant is a species of ant of the genus Pseudomyrmex. These arboreal, wasp-like ants have an orange-brown body around 3 mm in length and very large eyes. The acacia ant is best known and named for living in symbiosis with the bullhorn acacia throughout Central America.
Pheidole megacephala is a species of ant in the family Formicidae. It is commonly known as the big-headed ant in the USA and the coastal brown ant in Australia. It is a very successful invasive species and is considered a danger to native ants in Australia and other places. It is regarded as one of the world's worst invasive ant species.
Tetraponera is a genus of ants in the subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae that are commonly known as slender ants and are characterized by their arboreal nature and slender bodies. The 96 described species of Tetraponera all of which live in hollow structures of plants and trees, such as thorns or branches; these hosts are known as myrmecophytes. Tetraponera species are closely related to the New World genus of ants Pseudomyrmex, but differ in their relationships with host plants.
Crematogaster peringueyi is a southern African arboreal species of ant. They are commonly known as the black cocktail ant or swartwipgatmier (Afrikaans) for their colour and habit of arching their abdomens when alarmed.
Pearl bodies are small, lustrous, pearl-like food bodies produced from the epidermis of leaves, petioles and shoots of certain plants. They are rich in lipids, proteins and carbohydrates, and are sought after by various arthropods and ants, that carry out vigorous protection of the plant against herbivores, thus functioning as a biotic defence. They are globose or club-shaped on short peduncles, easily detached from the plant, and are food sources in the same sense as Beltian bodies, Müllerian bodies, Beccarian bodies, coccid secretions and nectaries. They occur in at least 19 plant families (1982) with tropical and subtropical distribution.
Azteca alfari is a species of ant in the genus Azteca. Described by Carlo Emery in 1893, the species is widespread in Mexico, Central and South America. This ant has a mutualistic relationship with a Cecropia tree. The specific name alfari honours a Costa Rican zoologist Anastasio Alfaro.
Xylosandrus compactus is a species of ambrosia beetle. Common names for this beetle include black twig borer, black coffee borer, black coffee twig borer and tea stem borer. The adult beetle is dark brown or black and inconspicuous; it bores into a twig of a host plant and lays its eggs, and the larvae create further tunnels through the plant tissues. These beetles are agricultural pests that damage the shoots of such crops as coffee, tea, cocoa and avocado.
Tetraponera penzigi, is a species of ant of the subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae, which can be found in East Africa. It forms an obligate symbiosis with the whistling thorn acacia, a dominant tree in some upland areas of East Africa.
Barteria fistulosa is a species of tree in the family Passifloraceae, native to tropical Central Africa. The tree has an association with an aggressive species of ant with a very painful sting, which lives in its hollow branches and twigs, and gives rise to its common name of "ant tree".
Vitex thyrsiflora is a species of woody vine in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical West and Central Africa. Its hollow stem is used as a home by an aggressive species of ant.
Tetraponera aethiops is a species of ant in the subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae, which is native to tropical Africa. It is found living in the forest in association with Barteria fistulosa, a small tree.
Coelomera ruficornis is a species of beetle in the family Chrysomelidae. It is found in tropical South America where it feeds on Cecropia pachystachya trees.