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myrmecochory
Jun. 9th, 2021 07:47 ammyrmecochory (mer-muh-koh-KOH-ree) or myrmechory (pr?) - n., the dispersal of seeds or fruit by ants.
We have a large colony of harvester ants under our front yard (large enough that some entrances are in the neighbor's yard) and we get to watch this on a daily basis, as seeds, berries, cut leaves, and even flowers get dropped by the wayside along their trails back from the gathering areas. Some plants are myrmecochorous, and have evolved their seeds to induce this, having seeds the ants can't eat a small with a small amount of ant-licious fruit to induce them to carry it off and leave the seed away from the parent plant. More at Wikipedia. Coined from Ancient Greek múrmēkos (genitive of múrmēx, ant) + khōréō, move/spread (the Wikipedia etymology is wrong, see Wiktionary).
---L.
We have a large colony of harvester ants under our front yard (large enough that some entrances are in the neighbor's yard) and we get to watch this on a daily basis, as seeds, berries, cut leaves, and even flowers get dropped by the wayside along their trails back from the gathering areas. Some plants are myrmecochorous, and have evolved their seeds to induce this, having seeds the ants can't eat a small with a small amount of ant-licious fruit to induce them to carry it off and leave the seed away from the parent plant. More at Wikipedia. Coined from Ancient Greek múrmēkos (genitive of múrmēx, ant) + khōréō, move/spread (the Wikipedia etymology is wrong, see Wiktionary).
---L.
