ABSTRACT
Ants interact with seeds in both beneficial and harmful ways. Many plant species entice ants to disperse their seeds by offering them a food reward: ants transport the seeds to their nests, where they eat the food body (elaiosome) but leave the seed itself intact. Seed dispersal by ants (myrmecochory) offers several potential advantages to plants, including the targeting of seeds to nutrient-enriched microsites, avoidance of predators, protection from fire and distance dispersal (Berg 1975; Culver and Beattie 1978; O’Dowd and Hay 1980; Andersen 1988). Seed-harvesting, on the other hand, results in seed destruction, and is a form of plant predation (Janzen 1971). It is especially prominent in desert regions, where specialist harvester ants can consume vast quantities of seeds (Brown et al. 1979) and have a marked impact on the structure of desert plant communities (Reichman 1979; Inouye et al. 1980).
