Lycaenid Butterflies and Ants

In many ways, ants are the greatest cooperators on earth. As eusocial insects, they are well known for their highly cooperative and coordinated societies, but they also cooperate with other organisms. Ants engage in mutualisms—aka symbiotic, cooperative, or mutually beneficial interactions—with plants, fungus, and other insects. They serve as effective protectors, fertilizers, seed dispersers, tenders, cleaners, and farmers. Ants are such prolific cooperators, that an entire class of species interactions exists to describe cooperative associations with ants: myrmecophily (meaning ‘ant love’).

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