FiloBaci Posted April 29 Report Share Posted April 29 Hi, that's my first post, I'm Filippo an experienced ant keeper (12 years of antkeeping) from Italy (pls forgive me for my English), I have many colonies and one of them is a Philidris laevigata one that is 4 years old in symbiosis with many Ant plants in a terrarium. One of these plants is a Myrmecodia platytyrea and now it is blooming for the first time. The ants are cutting out one of the 3 flowers on the plant (the biggest one). In the past I saw them doing this to the older plant in the terrarium too (Hydnophytum papuanum), but I had seeds form it, then they don't "kill"all the flowers. In this video you can see the ants removing the flower and going inside it, that I suppose they do this to eat it. inbound7854883405406953905.mp4 Someone know this behaviour, and why they do this if in nature normally these species are in symbiosis? They are ruining the plant reproduction right? Is this interesting? Thank you all for your time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philpatrick Posted May 3 Report Share Posted May 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philpatrick Posted May 3 Report Share Posted May 3 I have observed ants eating the flowers of cultivated plants. The link above has some information regarding ants eating the flowers of plants in situ. Also here: Epiphytic Myrmecophytes Bizarre Wonders of Nature, chapter 10 Myrmecodia part 1, page 22. There's more information on ant/flower interactions in the chapters of this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiloBaci Posted May 4 Author Report Share Posted May 4 Oh, thank you, so it may be that ants cut the flowers to make the plant they live in grow faster, very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiloBaci Posted May 4 Author Report Share Posted May 4 VID_20240504_111508.mp4 I add this video of the new flower, an ant is "looking" inside it, maybe can be interesting . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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