One afternoon, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Panama, a bored teenager with a slingshot and a clay ball accidentally shot entry and exit holes in a Cecropia tree trunk. These are “ant-plant” trees, which famously cooperate with fierce Azteca ants; the trees provide shelter and food to the ants, and in exchange the ants defend their leaves against herbivores. The next morning, to the student’s surprise, the Azteca alfari ants living within the Cecropia trunk had patched up the wound.
Click here for original story, Accidental tree wound reveals novel symbiotic behavior by ants
Source: Phys.org