Philidris cordatus and Myrmecodia beccarii

[justabeginner]

An interesting behaviour that we have noticed with the ants associated with the plants is that they are removing the some of the flowers. The flowers are fully mature, not sure if they have been pollinated and appear to be in peak condition (no signs of deterioration to indicate old flowers ready to drop) The ants are cutting up the flowers and are taking them inside the plant. Due to the legislation protecting this species, it is not possible to cut open or damage the plants to see where the ants are taking the flower parts to.

 

This is an intriguing behaviour as the ants do not remove all of the flowers on the plant and ants only remove flowers from their own plants.

 

Would be interested to know if other people have observed this behaviour in this species, any other Myrmecodia species or other ant-plant species.

 

[Derrick]

Philidris cordatus or P. cordata?

Shattuck in his 1992 revision used the spelling cordata in his comb. nov. (new combination) as did Smith in the original 1859 type description (Formica cordata.)

Shattuck, S. 1992. Review of the Dolichoderine Ant Genus Iridomyrmex Mayr., with Descriptions of Three New Genera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae.) J. Aust. Entomological Soc. vol.31, pp13- 18.

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/6/69/Shattuck,_S.O._1992._Review_of_the_dolichoderine_ant_genus_Iridomyrmex_Mayr_with_descrip-tions_of_three_new_genera_%28Hymenoptera,_Formicidae%29._J._Aust._Entomol._Soc._31,_13-18.pdf.

SMITH. Catalogue of hymenopterous insects collected by Mr. A. R. Wallace at the Islands of Aru and Key. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, 3: 132-178.

http://hol.osu.edu/literature-viewer.html?id=10342&page=137.

Other sources.

http://osuc.biosci.ohio-state.edu/hymDB/nomenclator.name_entry?text_entry=Philidris+cordata.

http://www.antweb.org/description.do?genus=philidris&species=cordata&rank=species&project=atolants.

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Philidris_cordata_stewartii.