At Coombe Hill, yellow meadow ants have a special relationship with the caterpillars of chalkhill blue butterflies. The ants are partial to the substances, similar to aphid honeydew, secreted by the butterfly’s caterpillars, so the worker ants carefully bury the butterfly larvae, and in doing so they unintentionally protect them from predators. This is a good example of symbiosis in nature.
Ants add to biodiversity
The mounded nests of yellow meadow ants create numerous small scale micro-sites within grassland ecosystems, each with small differences in soil nutrients, soil temperature, humidity, drainage and sunlight (E). This allows a much greater range of grasses, herbs and other flowering plants to thrive. So the activities of ants help to increase the diversity of plants species at Coombe Hill. The most notable plants to be found are rock rose, marjoram, basil and thyme. These in turn attract other insects, birds and mammals to the chalk grassland.