Differential associations with ants of three co-occurring extrafloral nectary-bearing plants

In contrast to many myrmecophytes, which shelter ants in hollowed structure s called domatia, plants bearing extrafloral nectaries do not have specific relationships with certain ant species. However, we hypothesized that diff erent plants might be associated with different assemblages of ants, We stu died three pioneer plant species from French Guiana: Passiflora glandulosa, Passiflora coccinea (Passifloraceae) and Mimosa myriadena (Mimosaceae) tha t occur together in the same habitat. The guild of ants associated with eac h of these plants was different from the overall ant community in the study area. Ant assemblages varied among plant species and, for a given plant sp ecies, from day to night. Certain ant species frequent in the study area we re rare or even absent on these plants, even species known to be very aggre ssive at the interspecific level, such as Wasmannia auropunctata. While ter ritoriality between ant species probably plays some role in determining dis tributions across plants, differential plant attractiveness to the workers also seems to be an important factor. Our large sample size, plus the fact that these plants develop in patches in which stems are frequently in conta ct, suggested that a certain selectivity occurs for plant choice by ant wor kers.