Once i was out botanizing and found two species of Vicia (Vetch) growing next to each other on a roadside in NY state (they are of asian origin).
one of them, V. sativa had ants crawling all over it. when i disturbed it the ants would snap their heads against the stem, presumably making vibrations to call others for help. Eventually they were all over me.
i noticed there were nectaries at the leaf axils that the ants were drinking from. (curiuosly the axils are also were the flowers grow)
scroll down here for pics of nectaries with ants at them
https://www.francini-mycologie.fr/BOTANIQUE/Vicia_sativa.html
image from that page:
these are in france AND the ants appear to be Camponotus too!
so i looked at the other Vicia (V. cracca) next to it. no ants. NO NECTARIES!
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/tufted-vetch
image from that page
very curious.
i was so fascinated that i took some ants home, went to the college library for an ant book to key them out with (all i could find was Wilson and Holdobler 'The Ants') and got them down to genus: Camponotus
this was my start in the study of ants!
at the time i did not have a camera to take pics. posted are pics from other websites.
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