Ants and Plants, Tree Fortresses

Mark W. Moffett

National Geographic Magazine

Certain ants develop tree-size symbioses for their mutual survival with plants. In some of the most highly evolved relationships known, the trees provide the ants with food and housing. In return the ants fend off the tree’s leaf-eating enemies and keep their tree clean and healthy. Whole forests of such “ant plants” exist around the world, many never photographed before this article was published in May of 2000.Wasp-ants (Pseudomyrmex) drink from little nectar fountains that their acacia tree provides them in return for the ants’ protective services. Costa Rica.

Mark W. Moffett, "Ants and Plants, Tree Fortresses," in POYi Archive, Item #30649, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/30649 (accessed November 23, 2024).