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Devil's garden

In myrmecology and forest ecology, a devil's garden is a large stand of trees in the Amazon rainforest consisting almost exclusively of a single species, Duroia hirsuta. Devil's gardens are immediately recognizable because the dominance of a single tree species is dramatically different from the biodiversity of the forest as a whole.

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According to Deborah Gordon devil's gardens got their name because locals believed that an evil forest spirit "Chuyathaqi" lived in them.

The ant Myrmelachista schumanni creates devil's gardens by systematically poisoning all plants in the vicinity except D. hirsuta, the tree in which it nests. The ant poisons the plants by injecting formic acid into the base of the leaf. By killing these other plants, the ant creates many nest sites; a devil's garden may persist for 800 years^[1]. Although the ants fend off herbivores, the size of the garden is restricted by leaf destruction increasing as it expands, as the ants are unable to defend the trees beyond a certain point^[2].

Frederickson points out that this symbiosis is an example of niche construction.

References

^ Frederickson, M.E., M.J. Greene & D. Gordon. (2005) "Ecology: 'Devil's gardens' bedevilled by ants." Nature 437: 495-6.
^ Frederickson, M.E. & D. Gordon. (2007) "The devil to pay: the cost of mutualism with Myrmelachista schumanni ants in 'devil's gardens' is increased herbivory on Duroia hirsuta trees." Proc. R. Soc. B. 274(1613): 1117-23.