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Description
Protection mutualism is a particular type of symbiosis where the host organism recruit protectors by providing them with some kind of reward. A well-known example of this is the relationship between Acacia plants and their ant protectors which valiantly defend their host plant against potential herbivores - even large mammals such as giraffes. These acacias have evolved a number of adaptations for their partnership with ants, including "domatia" which are cavities in the stems and leaves that the ants can live in, "food bodies" which sprout from the tips of leaves and provide the ants with an ever-present source of snack, and "extrafloral nectaries" which are glands that secrete sugary liquid - and anyone who have spent any amount of time watching ants would know they can't pass up on a sugary treat.

There are also other forms of protection mutualism such as that between anemones and anemonefishes, aphids and ants, or wasps which carry little "bodyguard" mites in special pockets on their thorax call acarinaria ([link] ).

As with most form of mutualism, this is basically a mutually exploitative relationship, with each party extracting some form benefit from the partnership. This essential nature is illustrated in this drawing - from the protectors' perspective, they are protecting a valuable resource which provide them with a steady and self-renewable supply of food amidst an unpredictable environment, but from the host's perspective, they are "buying" themselves an effective form of defence against its natural enemies simply by secreting a substance that is nothing more than an extra by-product of its physiology, which is far less costly and more flexible than other forms of protection such a growing thick protective armouring or a layer of stiff, sharpened spines.

Description
Protection mutualism is a particular type of symbiosis where the host organism recruit protectors by providing them with some kind of reward. A well-known example of this is the relationship between Acacia plants and their ant protectors which valiantly defend their host plant against potential herbivores - even large mammals such as giraffes. These acacias have evolved a number of adaptations for their partnership with ants, including "domatia" which are cavities in the stems and leaves that the ants can live in, "food bodies" which sprout from the tips of leaves and provide the ants with an ever-present source of snack, and "extrafloral nectaries" which are glands that secrete sugary liquid - and anyone who have spent any amount of time watching ants would know they can't pass up on a sugary treat.

There are also other forms of protection mutualism such as that between anemones and anemonefishes, aphids and ants, or wasps which carry little "bodyguard" mites in special pockets on their thorax call acarinaria ([link] ).

As with most form of mutualism, this is basically a mutually exploitative relationship, with each party extracting some form benefit from the partnership. This essential nature is illustrated in this drawing - from the protectors' perspective, they are protecting a valuable resource which provide them with a steady and self-renewable supply of food amidst an unpredictable environment, but from the host's perspective, they are "buying" themselves an effective form of defence against its natural enemies simply by secreting a substance that is nothing more than an extra by-product of its physiology, which is far less costly and more flexible than other forms of protection such a growing thick protective armouring or a layer of stiff, sharpened spines.