Formation and structure of food bodies in Cordia nodosa (Boraginaceae).
Cordia nodosa Lamark (Boraginaceae) is a myrmecophyte (i.e., plants housing ants in hollow structures) that provisions associated ants with food bodies (FBs) produced 24 h a day. Distributed over all the young parts of the plants, they induce ants to forage continually and so to protect the plants. Metabolites are stored in the inner cells of C. nodosa FBs as they form. In addition the peripheral cells have an extrafloral nectary-like function and secrete a substance that covers the FBs. The amalgam of these two functions, distinct in other known cases, is discussed taking into account the origin of FBs and extrafloral nectaries.
Laboratoire d'évolution et diversité biologique (UMR CNRS 5174), université Toulouse-3, 118, route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex, France.
Pascal-Jean
PJ
Solano
Monique
M
Belin-Depoux
Alain
A
Dejean
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000469:parasitology; D031213:Cordia / Q000166:cytology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000648:ultrastructure*