Pollenivory in Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Seems to be Much More Common than It was Thought

Czechowski, Wojciech; Markó, Bálint; Erős, Katalin; Csata, Enikő

doi:10.3161/000345411x603364

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Likewise, the structure of the ant-flower layer was very similar to the ant-trophobiont layer, both forming more specialized networks than found in the ant-EFN layer. Honeydew, floral nectar and pollen are resources of high quality and nutritional value for ants [65,66]. Since ants consume food rewards in opportunistic ways, it seems probable that resource availability and predictability across the year determine their foraging strategies: flowers normally are prevalent in the dry season, a period when trophobionts are less abundant [24,62].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Few Ant Species Play a Central Role Linking Different Plant Resources in a Network in Rupestrian Grasslands

et al. 2016

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Ant-plant associations are an outstanding model to study the entangled ecological interactions that structure communities. However, most studies of plant-animal networks focus on only one type of resource that mediates these interactions (e.g, nectar or fruits), leading to a biased understanding of community structure. New approaches, however, have made possible to study several interaction types simultaneously through multilayer networks models. Here, we use this approach to ask whether the structural patterns described to date for ant-plant networks hold when multiple interactions with plant-derived food rewards are considered. We tested whether networks characterized by different resource types differ in specialization and resource partitioning among ants, and whether the identity of the core ant species is similar among resource types. We monitored ant interactions with extrafloral nectaries, flowers, and fruits, as well as trophobiont hemipterans feeding on plants, for one year, in seven rupestrian grassland (campo rupestre) sites in southeastern Brazil. We found a highly tangled ant-plant network in which plants offering different resource types are connected by a few central ant species. The multilayer network had low modularity and specialization, but ant specialization and niche overlap differed according to the type of resource used. Beyond detecting structural differences across networks, our study demonstrates empirically that the core of most central ant species is similar across them. We suggest that foraging strategies of ant species, such as massive recruitment, may determine specialization and resource partitioning in ant-plant interactions. As this core of ant species is involved in multiple ecosystem functions, it may drive the diversity and evolution of the entire campo rupestre community.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Few Ant Species Play a Central Role Linking Different Plant Resources in a Network in Rupestrian Grasslands

et al. 2016

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“…observation). Some studies on worker ant crop content demonstrated that several Palaearctic ant species, mainly those lower-ranked in the competitive hierarchy, are occasional pollen-consumers, including three Myrmica species: M. schencki, M. rubra and M. ruginodis (Czechowski et al 2008(Czechowski et al , 2011. Moreover, pollen was found in the alimentary canal of larvae of 15 ant species from tropical forests (Cembrowski et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is rich in nutrients, with protein levels ranging from 2.5% to 60%, but it also contains various amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, and vitamins (Roulston & Cane 2000). While it is common in the diets of many insect groups (Wäckers et al 2005), pollen is rarely exploited by ants (Baroni-Urbani & de Andrade 1997;Creighton 1963Creighton , 1967Creighton & Nutting 1965;Wang & Tang 1994;Czechowski et al 2008Czechowski et al , 2011. For long time ants were considered to be only harmful (e.g., they consume floral nectar, deter true pollinators, cause damage to flowers) or neutral at best for pollination (see Galen & Butchart 2003;Ness 2006;de Vega et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, only a few ant species are known to be specialized in pollenivory (Creighton 1963(Creighton , 1967, while sporadic, opportunistic pollen consumption by ants is known in a handful of tropical (Wang & Tang 1994;Cembrowski et al 2015) and some temperate North-Palaearctic species (Czechowski et al 2008(Czechowski et al , 2011. Czechowski et al (2011) already hypothesized that in Northern temperate areas occasional pollenivory in ants could be promoted by seasonal food shortages caused by increasing competitive pressure from the part of territorials, as, e.g. wood ant species (subgenus Formica s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Competitive pressure by territorials promotes the utilization of unusual food source by subordinate ants in temperate European woodlands

Erős

Maák

Markó

et al. 2020

Ethology Ecology & Evolution

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In the presence of territorial dominant ant species, lower-ranked ants change their foraging strategy by shifting their activity in time and space and by switching to suboptimal food sources. Although important for many insect species, pollen is a rarely used food source by ants. Occasional pollen consumption was demonstrated only in a handful of ant species that are mainly lower-ranked in the competitive hierarchy. We hypothesized that the consumption of pollen by subordinate ants might be enhanced by competitive pressure exerted by dominant species. In the frame of the current study, we assessed the food preference of ant species within a supercolony of the territorial wood ant Formica polyctena by offering them pollen and animal protein baits. Subordinate ant species, especially Myrmica ants, exploited both pollen and animal protein, while F. polyctena foraged only for animal protein. The Myrmica ants exploited pollen sources more intensively on plots where F. polyctena dominated animal protein baits, thus interspecific competition was stronger. As suggested by our study, under suboptimal conditions, where food availability is hindered, e.g. by the presence of superior competitors, pollen can, indeed, be used as a food source by subordinate ants.

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“…Palynivory occurs in many taxa, including birds, mammals, and arthropods, but it is best known among the Hymenoptera, particularly bees. Although ants and bees are closely related and have similar nutritional requirements (i.e., adult workers require mostly carbohydrates but forage for protein to feed to larvae), there are only scattered reports of pollen consumption by ants (Creighton 1967;Baroni Urbani and de Andrade 1997;Ness 2006;Czechowski et al 2009Czechowski et al , 2011Byk and Del Claro 2010). We borrowed a technique from palynology, namely acetolysis, to investigate whether palynivory is truly rare among ants or simply under-reported.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sporadic pollen consumption among tropical ants

et al. 2015

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Pollenivory in Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Seems to be Much More Common than It was Thought

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

Few Ant Species Play a Central Role Linking Different Plant Resources in a Network in Rupestrian Grasslands

Few Ant Species Play a Central Role Linking Different Plant Resources in a Network in Rupestrian Grasslands

Competitive pressure by territorials promotes the utilization of unusual food source by subordinate ants in temperate European woodlands

Sporadic pollen consumption among tropical ants

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