Citrus snack time. These Ghost ants were doing something I've never seen before. This unknown citrus tree has several leaf buds just starting to elongate and they were clustering around these elongated bud tips. I don't know if they were actively chewing or just collecting phloem at damaged areas.
#Nature #Photography #Insects #Ants #Formicidae #Tapinoma #melanocephalum #Citrus #Macro #SriLanka
Could these ants be taking nectar from a male flower, which has nectaries in Citrus trees? Although the nectaries are at the base, not at the tip:
file:///home/albert/Downloads/Micromorphology_anatomy_and_ultrast.pdf
In summer, lemon and orange trees are covered in insects, presumably drinking sugary secretions. These trees like to keep bees and wasps, and ants, on it.
@twizzt the little buggers recently chewed-out the top buds of all the stems on a 1.5 m high cork regrowth I was religiously pruning all the lower buds on to get it to go up.
Tree is sulking now, not knowing what to do. I greased the stems with creosote which stopped the ants.
Ben S
Albert Cardona
SolaršGarden