Research

Many tropical plants bear extrafloral nectaries, a gland (whether or not with a recognizable structure) that produce nectar and consequently attract ants. It is broadly accepted that the ants will protect the plants against insect herbivores (e.g. caterpillars, grasshoppers). However, it is also hypothesised that extrafloral nectaries play an important role in uncoupling the association between ants and phloem-feeding hemipterans (mainly treehoppers in the tropics). Georgia is interested on investigating the evolutionary significance of extrafloral nectaries and the ecology of ant-treehopper-plant associations.