FACULTATIVE ANT-PLANT INTERACTIONS - NECTAR SUGAR PREFERENCES OF INTRODUCED PEST ANT SPECIES IN SOUTH FLORIDA

We observed nectar use by native and exotic ant species in nature, gar den, and urban situations, and found ants utilizing floral and extrafl oral nectar of a variety of flowering plant species. We collected 31 p lant nectars (29 floral, 2 extrafloral) and used them in feeding prefe rence rests against standard solutions of sugars (20 percent fructose, glucose, and sucrose, and their mixture), 10 trials for each nectar-a nt comparison. We compared time-to-discovery and coral ant visits to e ach droplet using ANOVA, and found that both trial and solution contri buted significantly to the variation in most experiments. Seven of the floral nectars tested were significantly more attractive to certain a nt species than the sugar solutions. Not only do ants use floral necta r, bur it appears that some floral nectars contain compounds that are especially attractive to ants.