Seed predator deterrence by seed‐carrying ants in a dyszoochorous plant, Chamaesyce maculata L. Small (Euphorbiaceae)

Seeds are often carried by omnivorous ants even if they do not carry elaiosomes. Although many seeds carried by ants are consumed, both seeds abandoned during the seed carrying and leftover seeds are consequently dispersed (dyszoochory). These non‐myrmecochorous seeds do not necessarily attract ants quickly. Therefore, these seeds often seem to be exposed to the danger of consumption by pre‐dispersal seed predators. We propose the hypotheses, “seed predator deterrence hypothesis” that plants may benefit from seed‐carrying ants if they deter seed predators from visiting plants, and seed‐carrying ants may play additional roles in plant reproductive success, besides dyszoochory by ants. To test the hypotheses, we investigated the abundance of seed‐carrying ants of the species Tetramorium tsushimae Linnaeus and Pheidole noda Smith F., and of the seed predatory stinkbug, Nysius plebeius Distat, on the spotted sandmat, Chamaesyce maculata L. Small, of which the seeds have no elaiosomes but are consumed by both ants and bugs. In the field, ants and stinkbugs seldom encountered each other on the plant. The number of stinkbugs beneath the plants with ants was smaller than that beneath the plants without ants. In laboratory experiments, the number of stinkbugs on the shoot was smaller when ants were present than when they were absent. These results might support the seed predator deterrence hypothesis: the probability of seed predation by stinkbugs seems to be reduced by the ant visits on plants and/or the existence of ants beneath the plants. This study highlights a new ant–plant interaction in seed dispersal by ants.