myrmeco-, myrmec-, myrme-, myrmic-, myrmi-
(Greek: ant, ants)
An outwardly "purposeful" category of dispersal is accomplished by plants through myrmecochory, the employment of attractive seed appendages and chemicals that induce the ants to transport the seeds without harming the embryo or endosperm. Myrmecochory is an almost world wide phenomenon.
Some specialized plant-dwelling ants protect their myrmecophyte hosts not only from herbivores but also from other plants that crowd in too closely. Some worker ants attack and destroy any foreign plant that sprouts within 40 centimeters of the trunk of the acacia in which they live, and they cut back vines and foliage of neighboring trees that touch the acacia crown. This pruning action has the effect of promoting the growth and survival of the host plant, but it also removes bridges over which alien ants can attack the resident colony.
—The Ants by Bert Holldober and Edward O. Wilson;
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press;
1990; pages 549 and 553.
adelomyrmex
Cyphomyrmex
Dorymyrmex
Erebomyrma Antiqua
formicine, myrmicine: ants
Of, or of the nature of, ants.
Gesomyrmex
Iridomyrmex
Myrmecia
myrmecide
The killing of ants.
Myrmecinae
Myrmecobidae
Numbat; monogeneric family of small terrestrial marsupial anteaters; tongue long, sticky, and protrusible; marsupium absent.
myrmecobiosis
A symbiotic relationship between ants; consociation (a friendly association or alliance).
myrmecochore
Dispersed by the agency of ants; such as, the dispersal of seeds by ants stimulated by nutritive bodies (elaiosomes) or special seed attractants.
myrmecochory, myrmecochorous
The dispersal of plants or seeds through the agency of ants with the employment of attractive seed appendages and chemicals by plants that induce the ants to transport the seeds without harming the embryo or endosperm of the plant (the tissue that surrounds the embryo inside a plant seed and provides nourishment for it).
Harvesting ants do not manage to carry all the seeds they collect back to their nests, and they do not eat all of the seeds stored in their granaries.
The result is that ants are a major and fortuitous dispersal agent for plants. They are especially effective in deserts and grasslands, but many species, not necessarily specialized harvesters, play some role even in tropical forests.
—The Ants by Bert Holldober and Edward O. Wilson;
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press;
1990; page 549.
myrmecoclepty
A symbiosis between ant species in which the guest species steals food directly from the host species.
A cross reference of other word family units that are related directly, or indirectly, with: "insects, bugs, worms; invertebrates":
aphidi-;
api-;
ascari-;
culci-;
Dung Beetle Survival;
Dung Beetles Important;
Eating Worms;
entomo-;
formic-;
Guinea worms;
helmintho-;
insecto-;
Insects: Importance;
isopter-;
larvi-;
lepidopter-;
meliss-;
mosquito;
Mosquito, other Languages;
Mosquitoes, Pt. 1;
Mosquitoes, Pt. 2;
scarab;
scoleco-;
sphec-;
taeni-;
termit-;
vermo-.
Subscribe to this FREE Focusing on Words Newsletter