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FOSSIL EXTRAFLORAL NECTARIES, EVIDENCE FOR THE ANT‐GUARD ANTIHERBIVORE DEFENSE IN AN OLIGOCENE POPULUS
Author(s) -
Pemberton Robert W.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1992.tb13727.x
Subject(s) - nectar , biology , myrmecophyte , arthropod , herbivore , insect , botany , hymenoptera , predation , ecology , pollen
Extrafloral nectaries are secretory glands, usually found on leaves, that have been shown to promote ant defense against the insect herbivores of many modem day plants. Extrafloral nectaries were found on the 35‐million‐year‐old fossil leaves of the extinct Populus crassa from Florissant, Colorado. Extinct ant species (belonging to five still extant genera that have modem ant‐guard species), and other predators and parasitoids (whose modem relatives frequent extrafloral nectaries) also lived at Florissant. The extrafloral nectaries of P. crassa (and perhaps other plants) probably operated to attract ants and/or other arthropod defenders as early as the Oligocene.