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Sporadic pollen consumption among tropical ants

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Abstract

Although palynivory, or pollen consumption, is widespread in other Hymenoptera, there are few accounts of palynivory in ants. We subjected adult workers and larvae from 77 species of tropical ants to acetolysis, a process that dissolves most organic material but leaves behind pollen grains. Ants of 38 species contained pollen grains, suggesting that sporadic, opportunistic pollen consumption by ants is common, but not ubiquitous, in tropical forests.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank CICRA and the New Guinea Binatang Research Center for logistical support. The comments of two anonymous reviewers improved the manuscript. The Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture provided permits. Vouchers specimens are in ant collections at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), the Centro de Ecologia y Biodiversidad (CEBIO) in Lima, Peru, and the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). We acknowledge funding from an NSERC Discovery Grant (MEF), an Ontario MEDI Early Researcher Award (MEF), an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (ARC), Sigma Xi (ARC), the Pierce Lab at Harvard (JGS, EY), a Putnam Expedition Grant (JGS), and the Czech Science Foundation (EY, grant number P505/10/0673).

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Author notes

  1. L. M. Arcila Hernandez

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

  2. E. Youngerman

    Present address: Department of Biology, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G5, Canada

    A. R. Cembrowski, G. Reurink, L. M. Arcila Hernandez, E. Youngerman & M. E. Frederickson

  2. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    J. G. Sanders

  3. New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea

    E. Youngerman

Authors
  1. A. R. Cembrowski
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  2. G. Reurink
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  3. L. M. Arcila Hernandez
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  4. J. G. Sanders
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  5. E. Youngerman
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  6. M. E. Frederickson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. E. Frederickson.

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Cembrowski, A.R., Reurink, G., Arcila Hernandez, L.M. et al. Sporadic pollen consumption among tropical ants. Insect. Soc. 62, 379–382 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-015-0402-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-015-0402-x

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