list of figures - Terry Sunderland

latter situation has been observed on Laccosperma robustum and Eremospatha
hookeri in particular (author pers. obs.).
The simplest and most widespread adaptations of plants that attract ants are the
presence of extra-floral nectaries; glands that manufacture rich sugary compounds and
amino acids outside of the floral structure (Bentley, 1976; 1977). However, many
plants, including rattans, produce chambers that are used by ants either for feeding, or
for nest sites, or for both. These “little houses” are called domatia (Huxley, 1986),
although they are also referred to as formicaria or myrmecodomatia (ibid.). Domatia
may be either deciduous, where shelters are quite small and delicate in structure, or
are permanent, and these are often characterised by the colonisation of the stem by
ants. The colonisation of the hollow stems of Barteria fistulosa by Pachysima
aethiops ants is a good example of the development of permanent domatia (Janzen,
1972) as is the swollen stem of Mymecodia tuberosa, colonised by the ant species,
Iridomyrmex cordatus (Huxley, 1978).
Although palms in general are not known for their close association with ants, the
rattan palms have been widely reported as providing, what are now more commonly
considered as deciduous domatia for ants to colonise (Beccari, 1884-86; Bequaert
1922; Ridley, 1910; Corner, 1966; Whitmore, 1990; Dransfield, 1979; Tomlinson,
1990; Dransfield, 1992b; Tuley, 1995). The unique morphology of the scandent palms
within the Calamoideae provides a number of specific domatia that ants are known to
inhabit. In the case of some species of Asian rattan, for example, Corner (1966)
records the presence of ant colonies in the inflated ocrea of Korthalsia echinometra
and in the interlocking verticillate spines on Daemonorops verticillaris. Dransfield
(1979) provides further examples of ant colonisation on certain rattan species
including colonisation of the reflexed lowermost leaflets of Calamus laevigatus and C.
javensis and the curious leaf sheath auricles of Pogonotium ursinum.
Despite some fundamental differences in both rattan morphology and the diversity of
the ant fauna (Brown, 1973), many of the morphological features that provide ant
domatia are shared between the Asian and African taxa. As part of this study, during
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