Datapaper: Ants and extrafloral nectary-bearing plants

Several arthropods, particularly ants, feed on extrafloral nectaries and, in exchange, they often attack and remove arthropod herbivores, reducing the consumption of leaf tissue and floral parts, and enhancing plant performance. Although most empirical studies and reviews have demonstrated that ant visitation benefits EFN-bearing plants, there are also several studies that have failed to show ants as protective partners. These different outcomes have been related with different factors, particularly to the distinct traits associated with the species involved. Despite the increasing number of papers dealing with indirect plant defense mediated by EFNs in the last 30 years, there has been no comprehensive effort to synthesize knowledge on this topic. In fact, due to strict inclusion criteria, recent meta-analyses have considered only a small fraction of the published studies on ant-EFN bearing plant interactions. This data set includes 341 studies and more than four thousand seven hundred records (n = 4,766) of ants feeding directly on extrafloral nectaries. When available, we also extracted the outcomes of the ant-EFN bearing plant interactions from each study. In addition, the effects of ants on herbivory, herbivore abundance, fruit set, and seed set (the parameters with most data) were assessed for general patterns. The data were gathered between 1941 and 2024, across 40 countries and several ecosystems in temperate and tropical zones. Ants visiting EFNs were recorded on plants from 32 orders, 68 families, 253 genera, and 451 species. Fabaceae was the family with the greatest number of records (n = 1194, 25.1%), followed by Passifloraceae (n = 430, 9%), and Bignoniaceae (n = 269, 5.6%). Passiflora was the genera with the greatest number of records (n = 254, 5.3%), followed by Chamaecrista (n = 241, 5.1%), and Turnera (n = 176, 3.4%). A total of 7 subfamilies, 78 genera and 543 ant species were found associated with EFNs. Formicinae was the subfamily with the greatest number of records (n = 1772, 37.2%), followed by Myrmicine (n = 1607, 33.7%). Camponotus was the genera with the greatest number of records (1176, 24.7%), followed by Crematogaster (n = 518, 10.9%) and Pseudomyrmex (n = 437, 9.2%). The effects of ants on herbivory, herbivore abundance, fruit set, and seed set were explored separately for community- and species-level studies. Ants led to a decrease in herbivory for 67.4% (n = 58) of the community-level studies and to 54.2% (n = 26) of the species-level studies. Similarly, 75.9% (n = 44) and 72.4% (n = 21) of the studies showed a decrease in herbivore abundance caused by ants for community- and species-level studies, respectively. Regarding plant fitness, ants led to an increase in fruit set for 42.9% (n = 21) of the community-level studies and to 52% (n = 13) of the species-level studies. Finally, 47.2% (n = 17) and 42.9% (n = 9) of the studies showed an increase in seed set caused by ants for community- and species-level studies, respectively. There are no copyright restrictions and please cite this paper when using the data in publications.