Ant Uses Herbicide to Create Habitat

Curious tracts of Amazonian rainforest containing only a single species of tree, Duroia hirsuta, have puzzled people who have encountered them. Locals called them devil's gardens, referring to the belief that evil spirits created them. Botanists had suspected allelopathy, a process where one plant suppresses the growth of others by secreting toxins. Studies by Stanford University researchers indicate that the devil's gardens are actually created by an ant species that builds its nests in D. hirsuta trees. The ant, Myrmelachista schumanni, poisons other plants around the host trees with formic acid, a toxin commonly produced by ants.

Link: Ants, not evil spirits, create poisonous devil’s gardens in the Amazon rainforest a Stanford University news report

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:08 PM on November 3, 2005

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