Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-06-18
SCIENTIFIC.

Plants Protected By IRsects.-One of
the most curious forms of defence
known is afforded by Recently dis
covered class of plants, which, being
stingless themselves, are protected by
singing ants, which make their home
in the plant and defend it against its
enemies. OF these the most remarkable
is the bull's-horn acacia described by
the late Mr.. Belt in his book, 1.-The
Naturalist in Nicaragua, shrubby
tree with gigantic curved thorns, from
which its name is derived. These
horns are hollow and tenanted by ants,
which bore a hole in them, and the
workers may be seen running about
over the green leaves. If a branch is
shaken, the ants swarm out of the
thorn and attack the aggressor with
their stings. Their chief service to the
plant consists in defending il against
leaf-cutting ants, which are the great
enemy of all vegetation in that part of
America. The latter form large under
ground nests, and their work of de-
struction consists in gathering leaves,
which they strip TO form heaps of ma
terial, which become covered over
with delicate white fungus, on which
literally they are a colony of mush-
room growers. The special province of
the little singing ants, which live in
the thorn OF the acacia, is, therefore,
TO protect the leaves of the shrub from
beng used by the leaf-cutters to make
mushroom beds. Certain varieties of
the orange tree have leaves which are
distasteful to the leaf-cutters, this prop
erty of the leaves thus forming means
of defence. Other plants are unac-
cOuntably spared by them-grass, for
example, winch, il brought To the nest,
is at once thrown out by some ant in
authority. The bulls horn acacia, in
return for the service rendered by the
singing ants, not only affords them
shelter in its thorns, but provides them
with nectar secreted by glands at the
base of its leaves, and also grows for
them small yellow pear-shaped bodies,
about One-twelith of an inch in length,
at the tip Of some of its leaflets, which
they use for food. These little yellow
bodies are made up OF cells containing
prOtoplasm rich in oil, and afford the
insects an excellent food. When the
leaf unfolds, the ants may be seen run
ming from one leaflet to another, to see
if these little yellow bodies are ripe /;
and if they are ready TO be gathered
they are broken up by the ants and
carried away TO the nest in the thorn.
Several small birds, also build their
nests in the bull's-horn acacia. thus
escaping from predatory ant which is
capable of killing young birds. The
trumpet tree, another plant of South
and Central America, is also protected
by standing army of ants, and, like
the aforementioned acacia, grows for
its protectors small food bodies contain
ing oil, but instead of secreting nectar
IN its leaves il harbors a small insect
tc6ccuS) whose sweet secretion is much
relished by the ants. DR.. Beccari men,
tions an epiphytal plant growing on
trees in Borneo, the seeds of which
germinate, like those of the mistletOe.
on the branch of the tree and the seed
ling stem, crowned by the cotyledons,
grows 10 about an inch in length, re-
manning in that condition until a Ger
tain species of ant bites mole in the
stem, which then produces a gall-like
growth that ultimately constitutes the
home of the ants, If the plant is not
fortunate enough to be bitten by an
ant it dies These ants, then, protect
their plant home by rushing tiercely
on intrnders, and thus are preserved
the sessile white flowers which, in this
plant, are developed on the tuber-like
body,