Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: van Borm S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1691126 | biostudies-other | 2002 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
van Borm Steven S Buschinger Alfred A Boomsma Jacobus J JJ Billen Johan J
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20021001 1504
Some Tetraponera ants (Formicidae, Pseudomyrmecinae) subsist almost entirely on amino acid deficient honeydew secretions of pseudococcids and harbour a dense aggregation of bacterial symbionts in a unique pouch-shaped organ at the junction of the midgut and the intestine. The organ is surrounded by a network of intruding tracheae and Malpighian tubules, suggesting that these bacteria are involved in the oxidative recycling of nitrogen-rich metabolic waste. We have examined the ultrastructure of ...[more]