human being first started farming works around 10,000 years ago in the Near East , but it seems we were worst to the post by at least 3 million years . scientist have discover for the first time that pismire in Fijihave been foundto cultivate plants , harvesting seeds , planting , and fertilizing them , and then move into their new home plate .
The plants that are cultivated by the ants are all from the genusSquamellaria , which are a character of epiphytic plant . This means that they mature exclusively on other plants , ordinarily trees . They are not sponger , because they do n’t often harm the innkeeper tree , but they do have reduce root , which means that they ca n’t take up nutrients from the soil in the usual mode plant do . This is where the ant speciesPhilidris nagasaucomes in .
These epiphytic plant naturally grow on a few species of tree that are also good to the ants , as they provide nectar , while also being the sodding host due to their voiced barque . Soafter eat up the fleshof the epiphytic plant yield , the insects collect the seeds of theSquamellariaplants and inclose them into cracks in the boniface trees ' barque .
The industrial plant develop and then develop a small growth , or tuber , which naturally has a small pickle in it . This allows the antsto mount inwardly , which the insects then utilize , in consequence , as a toilet . By pooping in the tubers the ants provide the epiphytes with valuable nutrients that helps the seedling grow . As the plants get bigger , so the tuber grows too , forming a web of chamber that the ants then move into and colonise . Reserving one part as the public convenience , the pismire continue to provide the air plant with fertilizer , while they set up another chamber as a greenhouse for their spring up larva .
As the ant colony grows , they implant more and more seeds , until they create a tiny ant “ village ” in the legion Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , connected to each other by little ant main road . “ One often finds dozens of colonies , tie in by ant highways , on a individual tree,”saidGuillaume Chomicki , who co - author the subject area published inNature Plants . “ All of these somebody are the offspring of a single queen mole rat , whose nest is located in the center of the system . ” When the domesticate industrial plant then train fruit , the ants have a quick provision of solid food , and more ejaculate .
While humans may have only just pluck up on this incredible symbiosis , it seems that the ants and plants have been working together for gazillion of years . By looking into their deoxyribonucleic acid , the researchers found that the species first started their human relationship at least 3 million years ago , and that they have coevolved for such a long time that now neither species can be without the other .
