Overview
- The study, published Aug. 11 in Ecology, used net-exclusion trials and time-lapse cameras to identify seed movers for Balanophora fungosa.
- Researchers observed land hermit crabs (Coenobita brevimanus) scraping fruits off plants, carrying fruit externally for meters, and sometimes removing whole fruit clusters overnight.
- Gut-passage tests showed some tiny seeds survive crab digestion and are expelled in feces, giving crabs the potential to move seeds up to about 100 meters from parent plants.
- Cockroaches (Periplaneta australasiae) were also filmed eating fruits and defecating viable seeds, and nets that allowed only ants stopped dispersal, ruling ants and wind as sole vectors.
- The findings show common coastal invertebrates can drive seed spread for a non-photosynthetic, yeasty-scented parasite on shaded, windless forest floors, which may alter how scientists view plant movement on islands and fragmented habitats.