FOSSIL EXTRAFLORAL NECTARIES,EVIDENCE FOR THE ANT-GUARD ANTIHERBIVORE DEFENSE IN AN OLIGOCENE POPULUS |
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| Authors: | Robert W Pemberton |
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| Institution: | Asian Parasite Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (Seoul, Korea), % American Embassy, Unit 15550, APO AP, 96205-0001 |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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