Glossary Details – French Guianan E-Flora Project

Glossary Details:

Ant/plant interaction in Cecropia. Drawing by C. A. Gracie.

Title: Cecropia ant/plant interaction. Photo by S.A. Mori.

Description: Ants associated with a species of Cecropia based on an unvouchered plant from Brazil. The pads on the abaxial side of the leaf petiole are called trichilia (sing. = trichilium) and the small white bodies within the trichilia are Muellerian bodies (see inset). The ants, usually of the genus Azteca, inhabit the hollow stems. They enter the stem through holes they have drilled at at small depressions at the top of internodes called prostoma.

Term:

Muellerian bodies (also spelled Müllerian bodies)

Definition:

Glycogen-rich food bodies located on fuzzy pads (trichilia) at the base of the petiole of some species of Cecropia (Cecropiaceae). Compare with pearl bodies.