I is for Iridiomyrmex cordatus
Drawing uses photo taken by Alex Wild – website here
.
Iridiomyrmex cordatus is a species of ant, that lives high in the trees in the rainforests of southeast Asia and Australia, inside a epiphyte – a plant that lives its life on the tree and gains its needs from it.
This particular epiphyte lives very high up and has plenty of sun and rain, but cannot get nutrients – and amazingly, this is what the ants provide!
They live in the honeycomb of tunnels in the round plant, protected by the spiky outer walls, and in return they leave the remains of their prey inside little growths in the plant’s tunnels. These remains decompose and the plant can gain its nourishment from them.
This is their slightly insane poem – with apologies to Max Bygraves (feel free to sing it to the tune of ‘There’s a Tiny House‘:
.
Coexist-ants
.
In a small round plant,
in the canopy,
live some shiny ants,
in a colony –
and they live their lives
symbiotically…
as
really
really
ants
catch
supper
give
some
to
the
plant
as
rent
you
see-ee-ee-ee-ee!
.
Liz Brownlee
All material © Liz Brownlee
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- Posted in: A-Z Challenge 2013
- Tagged: animals, ant, art, Australia, beautiful, nature, poetry, science, sustainability
lizbrownlee - poet 
A fun poem, Liz, and fascinating to see how the natural world interacts. A great post.
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Thanks, Ann! Yes, it’s sadly the case that every loss of an animal affects so many more species than one would imagine – all the way up to us.
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Where DO you find them? Another fun poem in little ant-size bites.
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Thanks, Liz! I have a library of animals books, so it’s not hard to come up with something interesting. Actually, only one book would do, they are ALL interesting!
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Liz Its great to know about so many animals. That was a cute poem. I like your posts.
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Hello Yamini, thank you, I’m really pleased you are enjoying my blog.
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