''Myrmelachista schumanni'', also known as the lemon ant, is a species of
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...
from
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. It is notable for the creation of
Devil's garden. Using its own
herbicide they kill off all the plants in an area except for the
myrmecophytes, or ant-plants, in which they reside.
Ant–plant mutualism
''M. schumanni'' live in large clearings in the rainforest, called
devil's gardens, where there is little to no bio-diversity compared to the surrounding area. There are only one to three species of plants found in these areas consisting of ''Cordia nodosa'', ''Tococa guianensis'', ''
Duroia hirsuta'' or ''Clidemia heterophylla''.
The few studies of the mutualism between ''M. schumanni''–''D. hirsuta'' have incorrectly concluded that these clearings are formed by
allelopathy on the part of ''D. hirsuta''. It was later established that
worker ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,00 ...
s were injecting leaves with
formic acid, a toxin commonly produced in ant species, and the plants started to die within 24 hours. Lemon ants are the only known insect to use formic acid as a herbicide.
By killing other plants, the lemon ants provide themselves with a nest site, usually residing in D. ''hirsuta''. Researchers estimate that the largest garden observed, contains 328 trees over 1,300 square meters and is around 800 years old.
Name
Lemon ants get their name from the lemony taste of acids produced as part of a glandular chemical defense system. When crushed or attacked, citronellal pheromones are created to communicate alarm to nearby individuals, which also produces a citrus odor.
References
Formicinae
Hymenoptera of South America
Insects described in 1890
Taxa named by Carlo Emery
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