БИОЛОГИЯ
Муравьи избавляются от мешающих им деревьев
Nature, Sept. 2005
Ants use natural poison to kill all but their host plant
http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2044
The ants live inside the trees' hollow stems, safe from predators and the environment. They kill all plants other than their host plant by injecting formic acid into the leaves. In this way, they help their host plant, and their own colony, to spread. Such gardens can hold more than 300 trees and millions of ants, and can be hundreds of years old.
"It's amazing that the ants exert so much control over their environment," says Deborah Gordon of Stanford University, California. "They create a single species stand of plants in one of the most diverse places on the planet."
('devil's gardens' in the Amazonian rainforest)
Nature, Sept. 2005
Ants use natural poison to kill all but their host plant
http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2044
The ants live inside the trees' hollow stems, safe from predators and the environment. They kill all plants other than their host plant by injecting formic acid into the leaves. In this way, they help their host plant, and their own colony, to spread. Such gardens can hold more than 300 trees and millions of ants, and can be hundreds of years old.
"It's amazing that the ants exert so much control over their environment," says Deborah Gordon of Stanford University, California. "They create a single species stand of plants in one of the most diverse places on the planet."
('devil's gardens' in the Amazonian rainforest)