Lycaenid-tending ants can contribute to fitness gain of the infested host plants by providing nutrients
- PDF / 1,277,264 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 44 Downloads / 204 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Lycaenid‑tending ants can contribute to fitness gain of the infested host plants by providing nutrients Priya Aradhya Ekka1 · Neelkamal Rastogi1 · Hema Singh2 · Harikesh B. Singh3 · Shatrupa Ray3 Received: 19 January 2019 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Ground-nesting ant species are known to promote plant growth by soil nutrient enhancement. Camponotus compressus ants regularly visit the extrafloral nectary-bearing, lycaenid-infested cowpea, Vigna unguiculata plants and construct a shelter for the lycaenid caterpillars at the plant base. The present study shows that ants may influence the overall fitness of the infested cowpea plants by providing nutrients via soil and foliar pathways. Total carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous content of ant constructed shelter (ACS) soil of the lycaenid-harbouring plants were assessed, microbes from the ACS soil were isolated and their plant growth promotion ability was evaluated. Nitrate content of the ant faecal matter was estimated and overall plant fitness was assessed in terms of its growth and yield. The results revealed higher content of total C, N and P in the debris and chamber soil of ACS as compared to the control soil from the base of ant-excluded plants. The microbes isolated from the ACS and ant nest soil were found to possess plant growth promotion abilities. Ant faecal matter was found to contain substantial amount of nitrate. The ant-included, lycaenid-infested plants as well as those lacking the caterpillars demonstrated significantly higher number of pods, number of seeds per pod, root length, shoot length, plant height, number of leaves, plant fresh and dry weight as compared to the control plants. Lycaenid caterpillar tending ant species with a high propensity for visiting plants thus have the potential to increase plant fitness by increasing nutrient availability via multiple pathways. Keywords Ant faecal matter · Camponotus compressus · Euchrysops cnejus · Nitrate nitrogen · Vigna unguiculata
Introduction Ants are documented to be involved in a wide variety of symbiotic food web interactions (Rosumek et al. 2009; Toro et al. 2012). Majority of plant-associated ant species are reported to provide indirect defense to the visited host plants (Bronstein 1998; Heil and McKey 2003). In many cases, the ants are attracted to the nutritionally rich extrafloral nectar produced by diverse species of plants that encourage ant Communicated by Jouni Sorvari and Heikki Hokkanen. * Neelkamal Rastogi [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India
2
Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India
3
Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, Uttar Pradesh, India
colonies to nest near the roots and thereby the plant gets access to mineral nutrients generated due to the ant colony’
Data Loading...
