Bittersweet nightshade, a plant in the same family as tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco, secretes sugary nectar in order to recruit ants as bodyguards. The ants, hooked on the sticky syrup the plant oozes for them, dutifully pluck off the larvae of the bittersweet’s mortal enemy, the flea beetle, which are clinging to the plant’s stem. They must be quick, before the wriggling flea beetle babies have a chance to bore themselves into the bittersweet’s body and wreak havoc. The ants march the larvae deep into their ant nest. The larvae are never seen again.
