Nattanit(Nam)

Rutchanon(Oat)

TheDevil'sGardenof
Duroiahirsuta
and
Myrmelachistaschumanni

[1]
Figure1
ThegreenlabelshowswhereAmazonRainforestislocated.

PlanetEarthisalivingplanetwherethereislifeexistingontheland,intheair,andin
thewater.Suchthat, the parts ofEarthmake up thebiosphereasglobal ecologicalsystem
that comprises all organisms, and their interactions with one another and with
[4]
environments especially plants and animals.
Tropical rainforest is a type of terrestrial

biomes that is the most abundant in term of living organisms within it. Ofallthetropical
rainforest that existed, the Amazon, locatedinSouthAmericaasin
figure1
,istheworlds
[3]
largest rainforest with greatest number of plant and animal species in the world.
The

surface of Amazon rainforest are covered with 56,000 of different plant and tree species
2
[2][5][10]
which takes up the total of 6.15 million km
.
However, among these highly diverse

areas, there are large stands of dominant trees called Devil's Garden remaining naturally
isolated and homogenous with the presence of almost a single species of plant and
[11]
animal.
According to Frederickson and Gordon,
Devil's Garden is community to

Myrmecophytic plants or ant trees;

Duroia hirsuta,Cordia nodosa, Tococa guianensis,and
Clidemia heterophylla,
and acolonyof ants;
Myrmelachistaschumanni
and
Aztecadipilis,in
[6]
which a mutualistic relationship between the tree and ant occurs.
In this paper, Devil's


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Gardens referred are the results of a symbiotic relationship between

Duroia hirsuta
and
Myrmelachista schumanni,
the most common species simultaneously found in the Devil's
Gardens in the Amazon.Together, theyformanobligatemutualisticrelationship,meaning
they cannot survive without one another.
D. hirsuta
provides food and shelter to
M.
schumanni in returnfordefending thetreesfromother herbivores,suchascaterpillars,and
removeothercompetingplantsbypoisoningthemtodeath,promotingthedominanceof
D.
hirsuta
ofthe area andcreatingthe Devil's Garden. Eventhough thegarden can beseen
homogeneous and dominant easily, it, theoretically and hypothetically,wouldnot beso if
either
Duroiahirsuta
or
Myrmelachistaschumanni
or bothwas removedasthecommunity
ofthetwospecieswouldnolongersurvive.

Figure2

Duroiahirsuta[7]

Figure3
LemonAntsor
Myrmelachistaschumanni[7]


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The Amazonian Devil's Gardens chiefly are composed of the two species:
Duroia
hirsuta,
shown in
Figure2
,
and
Myrmelachista schumanni,
shownin
Figure3.
Duroiahirsuta
is identified as shruborcanopyclass plantation within myrmecophytes species that grow
mainly within the understoryofatropical climate, andmajorlyfoundintheDevil'sGarden,
the Amazon rainforest. Located in the Amazon rainforest, the Devil's Gardens can be
spotted due to its special characteristic of treevoided areas among thick forest with
D.
hirsuta growingfromwithin.
D.hirsutaisfamous for itsallelopathicabilityorability thatit
canuse chemical toinhibitgrowth anddevelopment ofother competingplants, allowingit
[8]
to spread throughout the areas more effortlessly.
Actually thanks to the antsoccupying

the trees as they are myrmecophytic plants,trunks of

D.hirsutacontainsdomatia,hollow
areas within the tree made to facilitate acolonyofants,
Myrmelachista schumanni
.[6]

The
M. schumanni were grouped in Formicidae family, ant species that produces formic acid,
whichrelieson
myrmecophytes,suchas
D. hirsuta
,forshelteraswellasfood.Theantsare
responsible for the growth and distribution of
D. hirsuta
since their job was to eliminate
competitions thatmaygoagainst
D.hirsuta
usingtheirformicacidasherbicide.Thisprocess
iscalledtobeanicheconstructionofcultivationoftheDevilsGarden.
Although
D. hirsuta
was proven scientificallytobepoisonous,inwhichitisalsoused
bylocals forweapons,itseffectiveness todeathtowardsneighboringtreesisstilldebatable
and unclear.AccordingtowhatShwartzreportedonanexperimentconductedbyGordonin
the same year, even though
D. hirsuta has allopathic ability, the poison does notdirectly
[11]
causes the death of nearby species unless with the support of ants.
With poison

reinforcement from
M. schumanni within
D. hirsuta that spreads among its neighboring
plant, vegetation of other species died out, affecting the whole biosphere of the
[8]
surrounding.
The presence of
D. hirsuta broughtharmtowardothervegetation andalso

animals living in the area. With mutualistic ability mentioned afore, foreign saplings
identified within the Devil's Garden are injectedformicacidby the
M.schumanniworkers
[11]
intotheleaves ofthosesaplingsandbegintowiltwithin24 hours.
Aswellasneighboring


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plants, other animals, especially insects that trespass the lemon ants territories are
discharged by the ants acting as the security guards of the trees. Thus, the diversity
becomes low and animals living in shrubs and trees other than
D. hirsuta
, such as
herbivores, lack the mean of survival both shelter andfoodresources. Moreover,since
D.
hirsuta are always heavily guarded by
M.schumanni
workers,birdsand other species that
live within andbeyondcanopylevel then losttheirhabitats.Animalsandplantsthatfailed
toadapt to
D.hirsuta and
M.schumanniviolentnaturewill begreatlydamagedtoabsence
inthearea.
During the past 40 years, almost 20% of the total area of the Amazon has been
deforested,includingtheDevil'sGardens,andtheadditional20%willprobablybedestroyed
[9]
within the next 20 years.
In the future, If either
D. hirsuta or
M. schumanni were all to

disappear, the socall Devil's Garden would completely transform or cease to exist.There
are3scenariosoftheirabsencetobediscussedasshownin
Table1
below.
Table1
Possibilitiespredictedtothecommunityof3scenarios
Scenarios

(1)

(2)

(3)

Duroiahirsuta
disappeared

Myrmelachista
schumanni
disappeared

Both
Duroiahirsuta
and
Myrmelachista
schumanni
disappeared

Possibleeffects
toward:
Duroiahirsuta

Myrmelachista

(A)
M.schumanni
wouldlosetheir
shelterandfoodso
thattheywouldno
longerbeableto
nestandreproduce.

schumanni

(C)
D.hirsute
would
lackprotection
againstherbivores
andthetreeswould
slowlydieoutfrom
thearea.


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Theywoulddieor
havetomoveout.
Otherspecies

(B)Othernearby
myrmecophytes
withanothercolony
ofantswouldthen
dominatethearea

(D)
Aztecadipilis
,
anotherlocalant
speciesthatrelieson
domatiaforshelters
wouldreplace
M.
schumanni
.[6]

(E)Other
myrmecophyteswith
anothercolonyofants
mayreplace
D.hirsuta
and
M.schumanni

(F)Otherlocalcompetingplants,despitemyrmecophyticplants,
wouldreplacetheentiregarden.

Accordingtodatain
Table 1
, if(1)
D.hirsuta weretodisappeared,(A)
M.schumanniwould
be forced to move out, opening the area for otherlocalvegetationstogrowup incanopy
level, turning to the more diversity of the area. If the neighbouring plants were not
myrmecophytic, the ants,
M. schumanni
, that had lost their shelters would move to and
occupytheplants;otherwise,theywould die out due tothelackofhabitatsandresources.
Even thoughtheyhad their new placebutitdidnotbenefittheants,theantswouldnotbe
able to survive unless they found where they could get profits from. Conversely, if the
neighbouring plants were myrmecophytic, the antswould either surviveorvanish because
there are a colonyofantsoccupyingthetrees.Andtheywouldsurviveonlywhentheywere
able to invade and take over the trees. Absolutely, there would be a fight. However, it
usually is not easytotakeawaytheterritoriesoccupiedbyanotherantcolonybecausethey
always have a strong defense against their enemies. Such that,
M. schumanni would be
gone as they had nowhere to live and to takeadvantagesof for theirnest. Instead, other
myrmecophytes with other colonies of ants might replace the garden ofthe exdominant
myrmecophytes. In additional, replacement of nonmyrmecophytic plants to the entire
garden is also possible. Onthe otherhand,if (2)
M.schumanni disappeared,(C)
D.hirsuta
without formal protector would then be the main target of herbivores. Since the area is
heavily infested with
D. hirsuta
, predation would be very common according to
densitydependent factor concept (predation). Experimented byFrederickson andGordon,


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each
D.hirsuta inside Devil'sGardenwithout
M.schumanniwillexperience43%leaflossto
herbivory each year, 27% more compared towhen
M.schumanni
waspresent, and37.5%
[6]
morecomparedto
D.hirsutaoutsideDevil'sGarden.
Without
M.schumanni,(D)A.depilis

would takeownership of the empty

D.hirsuta instead.
A. depilisdoesnotreleaseany type
of poison to neighbor plant; in consequence,
D. hirsuta would beable to thrive singularly
[6]
but without drasticincrease in population or creationof Devil's Garden.
Additionally,this

possibility involved (E) having

A. depilis or other local ants and other myrmecophytes to
replace both D. hirsuta and
M. schumanni.
However,sinceDevil's Garden involved mainly
M.schumanni
formicacid,myrmecophyteswithcolonyofA.depiliswillnotbeasinvasiveas
before; however, allopathic ability of each myrmecophytes that was yet to be clarified in
scientific worldmaycontributetothe aggressivenessof theresurrectionof Devil'sGarden.
Lastly, above all, if (3) D. hirsuta
lacked aggressive protector and
M. schumanni
lacked
proper shelter, Devil'sGardenwould ceasetoexistas(A)
M. schumannidonotmeettheir
needsthatallowthem tosurvive andreproduce,and(D)
D.hirsutadonotgetprotectionso
they are invaded and damaged by other animals, especially herbivores, until death.
Consequently,either(E)othermyrmecophyteswithanothercolonyofantsor(F)otherlocal
competingplantswouldsupplantthetwospecies.
Among all species in the Amazon, thecombination of
D. hirsuta
and
M.schumanni
creates a ratherdevastated pair known as the Devil's Garden that inhibits diversity of
vegetationandspeciesliving inthearea.Withitsaggressivecharacteristicofusingpoison, it
can immediately be naturally selected over other species and spread over huge piece of
land. Nevertheless, althoughtheeffectspredicted ofthe threescenariosmentionedbefore
are different in each, there is a common fact to be considered that
D. hirsuta
and
M.
schumanni
cannot survive without one another because their needs largely rely on each
other.Ifeitherofthecombinationweremissing,thewholeconceptofDevil'sGardenwould
vanish, favoring the entire community of Amazon Rainforest in promoting diversity and
restorefoodchain,withmorespeciesofanimalsreplacing.


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References
Britannica.(2016).
AmazonRainforest.
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[1]

http://global.britannica.com/place/AmazonRainforest
Butler,R.(2016).
AmazonWildlife.
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[2]

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_wildlife.html
Butler,R.(2016).
TheAmazonRainforest:TheWorld'sLargestRainforest.
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[3]

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/
Ellis,E.(2013).
Biosphere.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150667/

[4]

FoodandAgricultureOrganization.(2015).
AmazonRiverBasin.
Retrievedfrom

[5]

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/basins/amazon/print1.stm
[6]

Frederickson,M.E.&Gordon,D.M.(2007).
Thedeviltopay:acostofmutualismwith
MyrmelachistaschumanniantsinDevil'sGardensisincreasedherbivoryonDuroia
hirsutatrees.
Retrievedfrom
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/274/1613/1117
GreenComet.(2016).
AntsintheDevil'sGarden.
Retrievedfrom

[7]

http://greencomet.org/2016/03/05/antsdevilsgarden/
[8]

Page,J.(1994).IdentificationofaplantgrowthinhibitingiridoidlactonefromDuroia
hirsuta,theallelopathictreeoftheDevil'sGarden.Springer.Retrievedfrom
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01956467.
Wallace,S.(2007).
LastoftheAmazon.
Retrievedfrom

[9]

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/01/amazonrainforest/wallacetext
WorldWildlifeFund.(2016).
Amazon.
Retrievedform

[10]

http://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amazon#species


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Rutchanon(Oat)
[11]

Shwartz,M.(2009).
Ants,notevilspirits,createpoisonousDevil'sGardensintheAmazon
rainforest.
Retrievedfrom
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/september28/devil092805.html