‘Devil's gardens’ bedevilled by ants (2024)

Brief Communication
Published: 21 September 2005

Ecology

Megan E. Frederickson¹,
Michael J. Greene² &
Deborah M. Gordon¹

Nature volume437,pages 495–496 (2005)Cite this article

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An ant species uses herbicidal weaponry to secure its own niche in the Amazonian rainforest.

Abstract

‘Devil's gardens’ are large stands of trees in the Amazonian rainforest that consist almost entirely of a single species, Duroia hirsuta^1,2,3,4,5, and, according to local legend, are cultivated by an evil forest spirit. Here we show that the ant Myrmelachista schumanni, which nests in D. hirsuta stems, creates devil's gardens by poisoning all plants except its host plants with formic acid. By killing these other plants, M. schumanni provides its colonies with abundant nest sites — a long-lasting benefit as colonies can live for 800 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305-5020, California, USA
Megan E. Frederickson&Deborah M. Gordon
Department of Biology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, 80217-3364, Colorado, USA
Michael J. Greene

Authors

Megan E. Frederickson
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Michael J. Greene
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Deborah M. Gordon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Megan E. Frederickson.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Methods

This file contains detailed methods for the experiments and analyses described in the article. (DOC 28 kb)

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Frederickson, M., Greene, M. & Gordon, D. ‘Devil's gardens’ bedevilled by ants. Nature 437, 495–496 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/437495a

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Published: 21 September 2005
Issue Date: 22 September 2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/437495a

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