Acacia Ants
Acacia trees are part of a large genus - there are thousands of species worldwide, or, more accurately, in the southern hemisphere and in the tropical parts of the northern hemisphere. A member of the bean family, they are also related to locust trees and the tamarind tree. One of the interesting aspects of the Acacia tree is its tendency to form symbiotic, mutualistic relationships with ants. [8] |
The Acacia tree provides the ants with sugars, protein and a nesting site. You can see two of those benefits in this picture. The enlarged thorns are hollow - the ants need only chew an entrance hole to gain access to the hollow inside of the thorn, which they can then raise their young in. A colony of ants on a tree may occupy many such thorns. The other lure for the ants are nectaries; these glands have a little depression that fills with tree sap, a good source of sugar (and water, something which should not be ignored in a tropical seasonal forest during the dry season. [9] |