''Tetraponera tessmanni'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

in the subfamily

Pseudomyrmecinae Pseudomyrmecinae is a small subfamily of ants containing three genera of slender, large-eyed arboreal ants, predominantly tropical or subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate cla ...

, which is native to tropical

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

, where it inhabits the hollow stems of the liana ''

Vitex thyrsiflora ''Vitex thyrsiflora'' is a species of woody vine in the Family (biology), family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical West Africa, West and Central Africa. Its hollow stem is used as a home by an aggressive species of ant. Description Although ma ...

''.

Ecology

''Tetraponera tessmanni'' has a

symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...

relationship with ''

'', a

liana A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...

of the tropical rain forests of West and Central Africa, which has hollow cavities in which the ant makes its nest. With most species of ant that live in association with trees, the ants prune the foliage of adjoining trees to prevent other ecologically dominant arboreal ants from invading their territory. That is not the case with ''T. tessmanni'', because the very nature of a liana means it is constant contact with other vegetation. Instead, the ant has developed certain traits that enable it to maintain dominance and ''V. thyrsiflora'' can be considered a specialized

myrmecophyte Myrmecophytes (; literally "ant-plant") are plants that live in a mutualistic association with a colony of ants. There are over 100 different genera of myrmecophytes. These plants possess structural adaptations in the form of domatia where ants ...

, because all mature specimens are found to be colonised by the ant. Shoots of ''V. thyrsiflora'' consists of a series of nodes, and the ants create entrance holes at the node junctions, and link the nodes internally by chewing holes between them to form their

domatia A domatium (plural: domatia, from the Latin "domus", meaning home) is a tiny chamber that houses arthropods, produced by a plant. Ideally domatia differ from galls in that they are produced by the plant rather than being induced by their inhabi ...

(specialised chambers adapted for habitation by ants). The nodes initially contain pith but this dries up in older shoots. Other insects are associated with plants and may try to colonise the nodes of ''V. thyrsiflora'', but ''T. tessmanni'' is the only ant to create entrance holes (although this is also done by the beetle '' Ischnolanguria concolor''). ''T. tessmanni'' is a very aggressive ant and seems capable of establishing its dominance over the liana, which may be or so long. The

ant colony An ant colony is a population of ants, typically from a single species, capable of maintaining their complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymen ...

may occupy the whole liana as it grows and have multiple queens. The ants patrol the liana and drive away herbivorous insects, but they do not feed on honeydew or nectar, nor do they leave their host liana to obtain food elsewhere, but they seem to extract all their nourishment from the interior of the nodes which they rasp to create wound callus. The ant larvae have their heads orientated ventrally, fleshy appendages on the thoracic and first abdominal segments, and hooked hairs on their dorsal surfaces, by which they are hung from the roof of the domatia. These appendages seem to act as a sort of gland known as an "exudia", with the larvae being fed by mouth and producing a fatty exudate from the gland which is licked off by the workers.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3911896 Pseudomyrmecinae Hymenoptera of Africa Insects described in 1910