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Have you ever heard of ants farming or tending to aphids? This is along the same lines, only the insects that are tended to are a similar type of insect called a treehopper. What happens is this: an insect such as an aphid or a treehopper lives by eating plant material or sucking the juices from plants. That insect lives in an environment with plenty of food--sugar--but not many nutrients such as protein. The insect lacks nitrogen (which is found in protein but not in sugar) in its diet. Therefore, the insect takes in more plant juices than it needs for energy in order to get the nitrogen it needs. Since it doesn't need all of that sugar, it excretes some of it as a waste product. Ants are attracted to the sugar, and use the sugar for food. Somehow the ants realize that without the aphids or the treehoppers, there would be no sugar. So they protect them. They attack other insects that might harm the treehoppers. They tend to the treehoppers, rubbing them with their antennas in order to get them to release a droplet of sugar water. Therefore, the treehoppers are protected from predators by the ants. What do the ants do for nitrogen? Well, they might get it from insects they kill in order to protect the treehoppers. Or they might eat a few of the treehoppers themselves for nitrogen. Overall, both benefit. There are a lot of insects, including aphids, treehoppers, and certain butterfly caterpillars which secrete sugars in order to gain the protection of ants. (This text was taken from the site indicated above)
11 Comments
Great spotting and interesting information
I want to put this mission for all world.
Sorry, Karen, I didn't notice it.
Sergio, Nilesh, the Ant mission is a local one for India!
thanks
Ok, Nilesh, already did.
Interessante!
can you submit this spotting to Ants World
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1055...
Ok, Karen, I'll do that. Thank you for the comment. Freelancing, tx to you too.
Fantastic spot!
Please consider adding these to the Symbiotic Relationships & Arthropod Interactions missions - you could also add to Hunters & Animal Food Habits as the ants are "farming" the hoppers for the honeydew they produce!
Wow. This is awesome.