The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions

Ants are probably the most dominant insect group on Earth, representing ten to fifteen percent of animal biomass in terrestrial ecosystems. Flowering plants, me

This book presents current research on all types of ant-plant interactions, and concentrates on understanding these often complex relationships in evolutionary

Ants are probably the most dominant insect family on earth, and flowering plants have been the dominant plant group on land for more than 100 million years. In

Early research on ant-plant interactions in Australia was largely confined to the economically important problem of ants harvesting surface-sown pasture seed (e

This important work is the first broad and thorough treatment of the subject of ant-plant mutualisms.

Mutualism is an often-complex positive interaction between species, each of which responds independently to varying biotic and abiotic conditions. Temperature i

Countless ants transport and deposit seeds and thereby influence the survival, death, and evolution of many plant species. In higher plants, seed dispersal by a