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Research Day Entry

Dinner in the Devil's Garden: Herbivory, Symbiosis, and a Bewitching Exception to the Stunning Biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest

In the Amazon, hyperdiversity is normal: over a thousand tree species can exist in the same small area. Yet, in Ecuador, there are also curious forest patches composed of only one species: Duroia hirsuta. These patches, known as “Devil’s Gardens,” are created by a symbiotic ant (Myrmelachista schumanni) that lives within the tree and kills any non-Duroia trees that germinate near their host. I examined how this ant presence interacts with other forest dynamics to affect insect feeding on Duroia trees. By analyzing 4,000 leaf images from 150 trees with different sized patches and varying ant populations, I found a significant protective effect unique to mutualist ants. Trees with Myrmelachista ants suffered a quarter the standing herbivory of trees without any ants and half that of trees with non-mutualist ant species. Ant protection, herbivory, and tree neighborhood all interact fluidly to control Duroia populations and maintain the phenomena of Devil’s Gardens amidst the striking biodiversity of the Amazon Jungle.