Ant Agriculture | On foot in the African Bush Episode I

Humans aren’t the only species that practice farming, or raising livestock, as a means to easily feed themselves. Ants do the same thing!

Introducing the treehopper, an insect of the Membracidae family that feeds off of plant sap. Treehoppers have tube-like mouthparts that they insert into woody plants to suck out the sap. They are able to obtain a lot of sugar out of their food, but not a lot of protein. However, the treehopper needs nitrogen in its diet (which is available in protein but not sugar) and it therefore eats more plant sap than it needs for energy.

Since it doesn’t use all that extra sugar, its excretes it as waste. Ants, who are attracted to and feed on sugar, seem to have understood that if they protect treehoppers from predators, they get an easy food supply!

Hairy sugar ants like this one will tend to treehoppers, like a shepherd to its sheep, attacking anything looking to eat it. It will then rub the treehopper nymph with its antennae to get it to release drops of the sugary nectar it loves. 

Since both organisms benefit from this relationship, we call it a mutualistic relationship!