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  While ants are among the most abundant, diverse and ecologically important groups of insects in the ecosystem, they are on whole not good pollinators. A few succulents and other plants (including some Euphorbias) are pollinated by ants. Plants in harsh, arid drylands are the ones that seem to rely on ants as there might be few other pollinators available. Ant-pollinated succulent plants also tend to be low-growing close to the ground where ants can more easily access the flowers.
Why don’t ants make good pollinators? Well, firstly the worker ants that visit flowers lack wings and typically forage short distances between their nests and the plants. This means that they are not efficient at carrying pollen over long distances.
Secondly, ants are obsessed with keeping clean, and by constantly grooming and producing glandular secretions, they often remove grains of pollen. These chemical secretions produced by the ants are for killing germs, but have an impact on pollen too.

Ants will often visit flowers for nectar, and occasionally to hunt other insects. Many plants encourage ants to visit by secreting nectar from special glands that are located outside the flowers (hence called extra- floral nectaries). These glands encourage ants, and they end up patrolling the plant providing some protection from greedy herbivorous insects who might want to feed on the plant.
 
 
 

 

We live in one of the most diverse and beautiful regions on the planet.

In a part of the world where most people make their living from farming, and are directly connected to nature in their daily lives. This book is therefore an excellent effort to engage the general public on the diversity and importance of wild pollinators for agriculture and livelihoods.
We depend, in East Africa, on many different ecosystem services that come from nature for free.
These include water resources, fertility of soil, energy from biomass, control of soil erosion, and pollination. To ensure we continue to have these vital services we need public awareness and education—two of the most important tools available for conservation and sustainable development.
Global awareness about the crisis surrounding the conservation of biodiversity and environment has grown significantly. However, it is important to connect this global movement to local action, and the information presented in this book will enable farmers, teachers, and schoolchildren across East Africa to better understand, celebrate, and conserve pollinators in their farms and gardens.
 The Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources–custodian of biodiversity in the country, salutes the supporting partners. With this publication the National Museums of Kenya, the GEF-UNEP-FAO Kenya Pollination Project, the Whitley Fund for Nature, and Nature Kenya are helping to raise awareness about better conserving pollinators. This beautifully designed guidebook, reminds us of how much we have to celebrate in pollinators and biodiversity as part of our national heritage.
H.E. Professor Judi Wakhungu
The Cabinet Secretary
Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources P. O. Box 30026-00100
Nairobi

First and foremost I would like to thank the many farmers and communities I have been privileged to work with, and who participated in our pollinator projects across East Africa. Though
far too many to mention individually, they hold the future of pollinators in their hands. Only with their help can we develop more sustainable agriculture, and ensure that pollinators persist as part of our heritage contributing to our lives and livelihoods.
This publication is the result of collaboration and support from many different institutions over the years including Nature Kenya, the National Museums of Kenya, the Turkana Basin Institute-Stony Brook University,
the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, the Kenyan Horticultural Society, the Mpala Research Centre, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the Pest Control Products Board, the Suyian Trust and the National Geographic Society. The Global Pollination Project of the Global Environment Facility – United Nations Environment Program – Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations has directly supported this work in Kenya, as has the Whitley Fund for Nature.
In Kenya, the work of the GEF-UNEP-FAO Kenya Pollination Project being implemented through the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) has been a key part of this work. I would like to thank W. Kinuthia, C. Odhiambo, L. Njoroge (NMK), M. Kasina (KARI) and all the members of the National Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Committee as well as staff and scientists of the National Museums of Kenya.
Information, insights, support, and collaboration in many different forms have been provided by the following people:
A. Powys, G. Powys, L. Coverdale, D. Roberts, N. Pierce, W. Tong, J. Kingdon, L. Snook, D. Estes, E. O. Wilson, K. Horton, R. Leakey, M. Leakey, L. Martin, A. DeRosalia, G. Domberger, D. Wallis, E. Whitley, A. Whitley, I. Angelei, P. Kahumbu, S. Kahumbu, H. Herren, S. Miller, T. Kuklenski-Miller, S. Kocher, M. Kinnaird, J. Mamlin, S. E. Mamlin, N. Croze, E. Krystall, M. N. Mutiso, V. Otieno, P. Matiku, D. Kathurima, F. Ng’weno, M. Gikungu, L. Njoroge, T. Griswold, L. Packer, B. Danforth, C. Eardley, M. Kulhmann, J. Ascher, N. Azzu, P. Lomosingo, B. Obanda, W. Okeka, W. Tiren, J. Margaret, C. Zook, J. Sandhu, Q. Luke, H. Beentje, A. D. Q. Agnew, P. D. Paterson, and many others.
I very much appreciate the many years of guidance, information, and support provided to me by Barbara Gemmill-Herren.
I am grateful too to Catherine Ngarachu for her energy and assistance, and to Job Ballard for his outstanding design.

Dr Dino Martins Photo Credit C. Lewis

Dr. Dino J. Martins studies ants, bees, and other insects, and their interactions with plants. He holds a research fellowship with the Turkana Basin Institute-Stony Brook University (USA), and lives and teaches in his home country, Kenya. Dino is a scientist, naturalist, artist, prolific writer, and shares his love for insects on his blogs, in numerous articles, and in the talks he gives, and dudu* walks he leads.
He currently teaches for the Turkana Basin Field School, and is a Research Associate of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, the National Museums of Kenya, and the Smithsonian Institution.
Dino’s research has been in East Africa where he has studied bee evolution and ecology, hawkmoth and butterfly pollination, co-evolution, the biology of vectors, and the links between biodiversity and landscape-level processes.
He is currently looking at what drives cooperation between flowers and their pollinators, as well as between ants and plants. He works with farmers to improve awareness and conservation of bees, and other pollinators, and tries to help mitigate the threat of pesticides.
Dino’s work has been recognised with many awards including the Whitley Award for Conservation (2009). More recently he was selected as one of National Geographic’s ‘Emerging Explorers’ (2011), elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society (2013), and an Honorary Member of the Kenya Horticultural Society (2014).
Dino earned his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University in 2011.