WHO ARE THE ANTS INTERACTING WITH PLANTS BEARING EXTRAFLORAL NECTARIES IN BRAZIL?

Ants engage in numerous ecological interactions, including protective mutualisms with plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs). In these interactions, plants secrete extrafloral nectar – a carbohydrate-rich solution attractive to ants. Once on plants, ants may deter or consume herbivores, thereby reducing herbivory on plants. Because EFNs morphology does not restrict access to extrafloral nectar, these plants interact with several ant species simultaneously or throughout their lifetime. The lack of broad-scale descriptive information about ant assemblage visiting plants with EFNs and their variation across habitats deeply reduces our understanding about the factors regulating the functioning of this interaction. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review to describe 1) the ant assemblage interacting with plants with EFNs and 2) how this ant assemblage varies in Brazilian domains. We found 106 studies in 135 locations across Brazil with 2459 observations. These studies described 186 ant species in 44 genera, mostly Formicinae and Myrmicinae, interacting with 155 plant species with EFNs. We also found that the domain with the largest number of ant genera interacting with plants with EFNs was the Amazon Forest, while for ant species Cerrado was the most diverse. Finally, despite the differences among Brazilian domains, the assemblage of ants interacting with plant species with EFNs was similar, both at genera and species levels. This pattern indicates that only a subset of ant species available in each ecosystem interact with plant species with EFNs, highlighting the relevance of some ant species for this mutualistic interaction.