Myrmecochory, the dispersal of seeds with lipid-rich appendages by ants, is a significant ant–plant interaction. Less well understood is the potential for ant dispersal of non-myrmecochorous seeds. Here we investigate ant–diaspore interactions in a West African montane habitat. We combine observation with depot experiments to determine ant species that move diaspores and distance moved across a forest-edge-grassland gradient. We recorded seed cleaning by ants using a bird/mammal dispersed Paullinia pinnata to determine whether seed cleaning improved plant fitness. We found that two out of a total of 17 ant species (Pheidole sp. 1 and Myrmicaria opaciventris) interacted with 10 species of non-myrmecochorous diaspores across nine plant families. Diaspores were from large canopy trees, understorey trees and vines. Both ant species interacted with small (≤0.24 g) and large (≥0.24 g) diaspores. Ants individually moved small diaspores up to 1.2 m and worked together to clean larger ones. Our experiments with P. pinnata showed that ants removed the pulp of 70% of fruit over 5 days. Cleaned seeds germinated significantly faster and produced seedlings with significantly longer shoot length and higher fresh weight than seedlings from intact seeds. Together our results suggest that ant dispersal may be less significant than seed cleaning in Afromontane forests. However, given the decline in vertebrate frugivores across Africa, a small dispersal advantage may become increasingly important to plant fitness.

中文翻译：

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西非山地景观中蚂蚁与非密实藻类水铝石的相互作用

Myrmecochory 是蚂蚁传播具有富含脂质的附属物的种子，是一种重要的蚂蚁-植物相互作用。不太为人所知的是蚂蚁传播非 myrmecochorous 种子的潜力。在这里，我们研究了西非山地栖息地中的蚂蚁-水铝石相互作用。我们将观察与仓库实验相结合，以确定移动水铝石的蚂蚁种类和穿过森林-边缘-草地梯度的距离。我们记录了蚂蚁使用鸟类/哺乳动物分散的种子清洁泡桐确定种子清洁是否能提高植物的适应性。我们发现总共 17 种蚂蚁中有两种 (菲多尔sp。1 和桃金娘) 与 9 个植物科的 10 种非 myrmecochorous 水铝石相互作用。水铝石来自大树冠、下层树木和藤蔓。两种蚂蚁都与小（≤0.24 g）和大（≥0.24 g）的水铝石相互作用。蚂蚁单独将小的水铝石移动到 1.2 m，并一起清理较大的水铝石。我们的实验P. pinnata表明蚂蚁在 5 天内去除了 70% 的水果果肉。与来自完整种子的幼苗相比，清洗过的种子发芽速度明显更快，并且产生的幼苗具有明显更长的芽长和更高的鲜重。总之，我们的研究结果表明，在非洲山地森林中，蚂蚁的传播可能不如种子清洁那么重要。然而，鉴于整个非洲食果脊椎动物的减少，一个小的分散优势可能​​对植物适应性变得越来越重要。