Devil's garden

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The Devil's Garden ( Kichwa : Supay chakra , Spanish Jardin del Curupira ) is the name given to naturally occurring monocultures of the red plant Duroia hirsuta in the rainforest of the Amazon region .

The indigenous people of the region believe that the affected areas are inhabited by evil spirits (hence the name). In reality, however, ants of the species Myrmelachista schumanni are the culprits. They live in symbiosis with Duroia hirsuta and give their symbiont a selection advantage by killing all other plants in their habitat with their ant venom. To do this , they inject the poison - the main component is formic acid - by biting preferably into the young shoots of the unwanted plants, which then die. In this way, the ants ensure the spread of their host plant, which is therefore counted among the ant plants . Since the ants colonize the hollow trunks of Duroia hirsuta , this in turn serves to expand and maintain their own colony .

This symbiosis, in which the tree provides caves for the ants and in return is protected from annoying competition , seems to be very successful for both species : the oldest devil's garden observed by researchers to date has existed for around 800 years.

In each devil's garden there is only one single, sometimes huge ant colony, which can be composed of up to 3 million worker ants and around 15,000 queens.

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