@article{MaschwitzFialaDolling1987,
  author    = {Maschwitz, U. and Fiala, Brigitte and Dolling, W. R.},
  title     = {New trophobiotic symbioses of ants with South East Asian bugs},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-34030},
  year      = {1987},
  abstract  = {A trophobiotic relationship between two species of phloem-feeding plataspid bugs and an ant, Meranoplus mucronatus, was discovered on tree trunks in Malaysia. Similar relationships were found between coreid bugs and Crematogaster sp. and Anoplolepis longipes, on bamboo in the same area. The ants recruit to groups of the bugs and feed on the liquid, sugar-rich faeces of the larvae, stimulating release of the honeydew by tactile signals. They protect all stages of the bugs from disturbance by biting and by the use of defensive secretions. Phloem-feeding bugs in the families Plataspidae and Coreidae need long sty lets to pierce the thick bark of their host tree. The different methods of accommodating the resting stylets in these two families are described. The plataspids are described as Tropidotylus servus sp. novo and T. minister sp. novo A coreid previously reported in association with M. mucronatus in Malaya is described as Hygia cliens sp. novo The coreids on bamboo were determined as Cloresmus spp. and Notobitus affinis.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{RostasBollmannSavilleetal.2018,
  author    = {Rost{\´a}s, Michael and Bollmann, Felix and Saville, David and Riedel, Michael},
  title     = {Ants contribute to pollination but not to reproduction in a rare calcareous grassland forb},
  series = {PeerJ},
  volume    = {6},
  journal   = {PeerJ},
  doi       = {10.7717/peerj.4369},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227053},
  pages     = {e4369, 1-16},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {The number of plants pollinated by ants is surprisingly low given the abundance of ants and the fact that they are common visitors of angiosperms. Generally ants are considered as nectar robbers that do not provide pollination service. We studied the pollination system of the endangered dry grassland forb Euphorbia seguieriana and found two ant species to be the most frequent visitors of its flowers. Workers of Formica cunicularia carried five times more pollen than smaller Tapinoma erraticum individuals, but significantly more viable pollen was recovered from the latter. Overall, the viability of pollen on ant cuticles was significantly lower (p < 0.001)-presumably an antibiotic effect of the metapleural gland secretion. A marking experiment suggested that ants were unlikely to facilitate outcrossing as workers repeatedly returned to the same individual plant. In open pollinated plants and when access was given exclusively to flying insects, fruit set was nearly 100\%. In plants visited by ants only, roughly one third of flowers set fruit, and almost none set fruit when all insects were excluded. The germination rate of seeds from flowers pollinated by flying insects was 31 +/- 7\% in contrast to 1 +/- 1\% resulting from ant pollination. We conclude that inbreeding depression may be responsible for the very low germination rate in ant pollinated flowers and that ants, although the most frequent visitors, play a negligible or even deleterious role in the reproduction of E. seguieriana. Our study reiterates the need to investigate plant fitness effects beyond seed set in order to confirm ant-plant mutualisms.},
  language  = {en}
}