Azteca-Cecropia Behavioral Ecology

Uploaded by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on 2016-06-20.

Supported by ONR and NSF One type of tree in neotropical rainforests has developed a survival strategy where it keeps colonies of ants as pets. In turn, the ants serve as a defense system to protect the plants from herbivores, leaf cutter ants, and other pests.

An army ant (Eciton hamatum) is introduced to a Cecropia tree inhabited by Azteca ants (Azteca constructor) as part of an experiment testing colony aggressiveness. Upon discovering the intruder, the Azteca ants raise the alarm and attack the army ant, biting and pulling on her appendages to immobilize her.

When presented with a crushed nestmate, these Cecropia inhabiting Azteca ants quickly dispose of it and stand in an upright posture, flicking their heads into the air. This flicking behavior can be seen both at the site where the crushed nestmate was place and at multiple nearby tree entrances.

Even Azteca colonies that occupy sapling Cecropia plants are ready to respond explosively to leaf damage. Ants cue into the volatile chemical released by leaf tissue damage. Note that as the ant that discovered the damage returns to the stem to rally her nestmates, she is dragging her abdomen, laying a guiding chemical trail.

Azteca constructor colonies differ consistently and substantially in their response to range of behavioral traits. Here, two similar-size colonies respond to vibrational disturbance from a "flick-o-matic" robot out of the frame below. After 20 seconds, red dots appears in the top left to indicate when the flicking begins.

This video demonstrates how Azteca constructor ants respond after they've discovered the leaves of their Cecropia host plant have been damaged. A patrolling worker happens upon the damage caused by a hole puncher. After assessing the situation, she runs back along the leaf's large vein, dragging her abdomen to create a pheromone trail that her nestmates can follow.

Watch these food bodies grow in real time on a Cecropia peltata. Cecropia trees provide sugar-rich food bodies to their Azteca ant residents in return for protection from herbivores. Normally food bodies are not seen in such quantities because the workers harvest them as soon as they mature.

Uploaded by Peter Marting on 2016-10-28.

Marting discusses the design of his 3rd generation tree-whacking device.

Azteca ants patrol a Cecropia tree in a greenhouse in Panama

An Azteca ant working entrance guard duty on its Cecropia tree in Panama.

The howler monkeys have very different foraging approaches depending on which Cecropia tree they are feeding on. In the first shot, the monkey seems to be minimizing its contact with the plant and retreats quickly after snapping off the soft meristem, and presumably scratches off the attacking Azteca ants.

After a Cecropia tree has fallen, a jumping spider attempts to take advantage of the structurally vulnerable Azteca ants. The spider attacks and attempts to remove the worker from her tree, but specialized hooks and the legs of the ant work together with loop hairs on the surface of the Cecropia tree to increase the ant's grip strength.

This newly mated Azteca ant queen chews a hole at a designated site on a hollow internode of a Cecropia tree. Once inside, she scrapes the internal tissue, called parenchyma, and uses it to plug the hole.

Time lapse of a female laying eggs in the hollow stem of a Cecropia tree that is not defended by Azteca ants, and then her hatched larvae eat the leaves.

Once an entrance into the hollow stem of a Cecropia tree is opened by Azteca ants, it doesn't remain open on its own. The plant will slowly close and seal th...

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Azteca ants harvest them as soon as they grow.

Short clips of Azteca alfari ants harvesting food bodies from Cecropia pachystachya trees.

An Azteca alfari ant guards an ant-made entrance to her nest inside the hollow stems of the Cecropia tree. She also traverses the nest inside using and-made ...

Azteca ants constantly patrol their Cecropia tree, looking for intruders. When a large vertebrate, like a sloth or monkey, climbs onto the tree to eat its leaves, the vibrations alarm the colony and the ants fiercely swarm the tree, aiming to sink their sharp mandibles into the intruder to defend their host.

Bound in an intimate mutualism, Cecropia trees provide hollow nesting spaces and nutritious food bodies for Azteca ants, who return rigorous protection from herbivores and encroaching vines. Ants constantly patrol the tree, looking for intruders.

I studied the internal structure of Azteca nests by dissecting 14 Cecropia trees. The trees have hollow, connected segments, called internodes, similar to bamboo. These internodes are where the colony resides - one colony per tree, distributed among its internodes.

Jungle Fluids is a video installation documenting a performance which exists between the traditionally divided fields of science and art. This artifact from my PhD research investigates the value of expressive media for opening new routes of experiential scientific investigation.

Witnessing army ants on the move is an always impressive phenomenon. Here, Labidus spininodis create and heavily guard quasi-subterranean tunnels for efficient, safe travel. Note the specialized, parasitoid phorid flies attempting to deposit their eggs on the neck of distracted ants.

Uploaded by thefresh on 2017-08-21.

In Soberania National Park, Panama, a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth came down from the canopy to get a bath in a rainforest stream as they do on occasion. Algae that grows on their hair and other forest accumulations normally provide decent camouflage for this slow, charming beast.

Wilson was crossing a treacherous road when I found him. Lucking he found a tree to call his sanctuary pretty quickly.

Although this may look like a vicious predator efficiently devouring a school of helpless minnows like a vacuum, it is actually a cichlid mother protecting her offspring. In this extreme parental care behavior, called mouthbrooding, the mother protects her offspring within her mouth for extended periods of time and lets them out to forage every once in a while.

The jungle is magical and horrible all at once. While living in a tent in the middle of the Peruvian rainforest for 4 months, I collected footage of my life-changing experience. These images from the Tono Field Station in Manu National Park are set to an edited version of Sufjan Steven's Interlude I: Dream Sequence In Subi Circumnavigation from The BQE.

Peter Marting between his field work. He needs a ladder on the other side of that jungle.