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Science 9 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5621, pp. 916 - 917
DOI: 10.1126/science.1085065
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
Cryptic Herbivores of the Rainforest Canopy

James H. Hunt

Ants are generally considered to be predators or scavengers, not herbivores. As Hunt explains in his Perspective, it now seems that ants of the rainforest canopy are cryptic herbivores that feed indirectly on plant sap by milking the exudates of sap-sucker insects such as aphids (Davidson et al.). These cryptic herbivores contribute to the burden of herbivory on rainforest plants and thus are an important part of the rainforest carbon cycle.

The author is in the Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA. E-mail: jimhunt{at}umsl.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Phloem-sap feeding by animals: problems and solutions.
A. E. Douglas (2006)
J. Exp. Bot. 57, 747-754
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