Special ants plant trees to nest on Fiji island

On the luxuriant branches of Fiji Island, ants Philidris nagasau is doing incredible farm work.

They collected the seeds of the Squamellari fruit tree and planted it on discreet trees and branches. When this plant is rooted and begins to grow, ants will crawl into young stalks and fertilize the plants. After that is the interesting thing. As the fruit grows, ants will crawl inside, dig tunnels and gaps inside the soft flesh of the fruit. As the ant nest grows, it can include dozens of fruits, which look like strange tumors sticking to tree branches.

Ant species Philidris nagasau.(photo: GMANetwork.com).

Ant nest on the trunk of Squamellaria.

Although scientists have long known that ant nests can live inside fruit, a new Nature Plants study shows that this "home" type is much more complex and ancient than their understanding. me.

Biologists at the University of Munich went to Fiji Island to observe ant colonies and found that they lived in six species of Squamellaria , which are only found in Fiji Island. This plant lives on the bark of other trees with a unique root system. When plants are small, ants will dig a small hole (domatium) on the stalk to fertilize the tree. How are they applied? Scientists can only speculate that perhaps they use ants themselves.

The ants nest inside the Squamellaria tree.(photo: Derrick J. Rowe).

Ants will continue to supply fertilizer even after the tree is mature, and vice versa, the tree will bring sweet fruit and shelter. (Photo: Nature Plants)

When the tree is big, the small hole swells up like a big tumor. When the tree comes out, ants will continue to be planted and guarded. The researchers found that ants will only get seeds from a Squamelleria they like. The ants they observed grew vastly over 25 plants.

Ants will continue to supply fertilizer even after the tree is mature, and vice versa, the tree will bring sweet fruit and shelter. This is a type of true symbiotic relationship between two species. According to observation, there are no ants living outside the Squamelleria tree, and there is no Squamelleria that is favored by ants but developed without ants. Researchers believe that two species have been symbiotic for millions of years.

Ants cut leaves.(Photo: Mark Bowler / Science Source).

Ants Philidris nagasau is not the only ant species to do farming. The leaf-cutting ants also grow mushrooms in the ground for food for larvae, while ants for silver Argentine feed on aphids in the trees to obtain sweet juices. The difference is that Philidris nagasau ants exist entirely depending on the type of plant they grow, and the Squamelleria tree is completely based on ants to grow. There are so many interesting things that people can learn from small ants.