Reduced damage and epiphyll cover of leaves of Korthalsia rattans that host Camponotus ants in the rain forest of Malaysian Borneo

Many species of palm produce chambers called domatia that are used by ants as nesting spaces. However, the ecological nature of this association is not well understood, and the information on palm–ant interactions is primarily anecdotal. Here, we conducted a field study in the secondary forest of th...

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Published inJournal of tropical ecology Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 330 - 334
Main Authors Miler, Krzysztof, Yahya, Bakhtiar Effendi, Czarnoleski, Marcin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2016
Subjects
Camponotus
Conservation areas
Flowers & plants
Herbivores
Leaves
Nesting
Plant diseases
Rainforests
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Malaysia
Borneo
ants
Borneo
symbiosis
herbivory
palms
Korthalsia furtadoana
domatia
epiphyll
Camponotus
mutualism
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Summary:Many species of palm produce chambers called domatia that are used by ants as nesting spaces. However, the ecological nature of this association is not well understood, and the information on palm–ant interactions is primarily anecdotal. Here, we conducted a field study in the secondary forest of the Danum Valley Conservation Area, Malaysian Borneo, on 41 individuals of the rattan Korthalsia furtadoana. All studied plants showed signs of a past or present partnership with domatia-nesting ants, as indicated by entry holes in domatia. In 14 plants, our physical disturbance of a stem provoked the appearance of patrolling ants of Camponotus sp. We compared the leaf conditions of rattans with and without patrolling ants, testing whether the presence of ants is linked to improved leaf health. The leaflets of plants with patrolling ants were significantly less physically damaged and less covered by epiphylls. On average, 19% of the leaflets of plants with patrolling ants were damaged (52% in plants without patrolling ants), and the epiphyll cover of their leaflets was 0.2 on our scale of 0–4 (1.3 in plants without patrolling ants). Our results suggest that this poorly studied plant–ant association has a mutualistic character. It seems that the ants take advantage of the nesting space created by the plant partner, while the plants gain protection for their photosynthetic apparatus against herbivores and epiphylls.
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ISSN:0266-4674
1469-7831
DOI:10.1017/S0266467416000316