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Floral volatiles controlling ant behaviour

På svenska

Author

  • Pat G. Willmer
  • Clive V. Nuttman
  • Nigel E. Raine
  • Graham N. Stone
  • Jonathan G. Pattrick
  • Kate Henson
  • Philip Stillman
  • Lynn McIlroy
  • Simon G. Potts
  • Jette Knudsen

Summary, in English

P>1. Ants show complex interactions with plants, both facultative and mutualistic, ranging from grazers through seed predators and dispersers to herders of some herbivores and guards against others. But ants are rarely pollinators, and their visits to flowers may be detrimental to plant fitness. 2. Plants therefore have various strategies to control ant distributions, and restrict them to foliage rather than flowers. These 'filters' may involve physical barriers on or around flowers, or 'decoys and bribes' sited on the foliage (usually extrafloral nectaries - EFNs). Alternatively, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used as signals to control ant behaviour, attracting ants to leaves and/or deterring them from functional flowers. Some of the past evidence that flowers repel ants by VOCs has been equivocal and we describe the shortcomings of some experimental approaches, which involve behavioural tests in artificial conditions. 3. We review our previous study of myrmecophytic acacias, which used in situ experiments to show that volatiles derived from pollen can specifically and transiently deter ants during dehiscence, the effects being stronger in ant-guarded species and more effective on resident ants, both in African and Neotropical species. In these plants, repellence involves at least some volatiles that are known components of ant alarm pheromones, but are not repellent to beneficial bee visitors. 4. We also present new evidence of ant repellence by VOCs in temperate flowers, which is usually pollen-based and active on common European ants. We use these data to indicate that across a wide range of plants there is an apparent trade-off in ant-controlling filter strategies between the use of defensive floral volatiles and the alternatives of decoying EFNs or physical barriers.

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

888-900

Publication/Series

Functional Ecology

Volume

23

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Zoology

Keywords

  • volatiles
  • E
  • ant guards
  • E-alpha-farnesene
  • evolutionary filters
  • extrafloral
  • floral repellence
  • nectar
  • pollen
  • morphological floral barriers

Status

Published

Research group

  • Pheromone Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1365-2435