Ants 'diet' for carnivorous plants

Carnivorous plants can benefit from guarding services, bodyguards and 'hiring hire' of ants.

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Nepenthes bicalcarata live in the nutrient-rich peat forests on Borneo island. It is not a very effective carnivore. Their warm-leaf leaves lack smooth walls and sticky, flexible and corrosive fluids, making it difficult to effectively trap as their relatives.

However, Nepenthes bicalcarata has great external support, which is the ants Camponotus schmitzi . This carnivorous plant has bulging tassels at the bottom of each warm lid, which is used by the ants, and the nectar source for them to be secreted on the warm lid.

Nepenthes bicalcarata tree

In turn, these ants provide a range of services for Nepenthes bicalcarata. They clean the warm lid, making it smooth enough to catch prey. They attack grain beetles capable of eating plants. They removed the remains of the prey from the warm cap so they wouldn't rot there. They ambushed under the warm lid and attacked any prey of the pitcher tree trying to escape the trap. And their feces are fertile for warm plants.

Previously, scientists have yet to get solid evidence of this alliance and argue that it can only benefit from each ant. In the new study, French experts compared two types of plants, with and without ants. The results show that ants' plants are more 'productive' than those that do not. Researcher Vincent Bazile from Montpellier 2 University in France said: 'Symbiotic ants have been shown to be very important for the nutrition and survival of host plants'.

According to the report published in the latest issue of PLoS ONE, live ants eat more leaves and larger leaves; Mature foliage contains three times more nitrogen (this nutrient plays a key role for organic molecules such as proteins and DNA). Residual ants also have a broader lid and hold more bait. Nitrogen isotope analyzes suggest that without ants, these plants have symptoms of malnutrition.

" The coherent combination of carnivorous plants and ants in the plant kingdom is a unique adaptation to poor nutrient soil extraction . This may explain why Nepenthes bicalcarata has longevity and increased rare heads, reaching a height of 20m, a record for this species, ' said Laurence Gaume, a research member.