The role of ants in relation to oil palm landscapes

by Myrmecological News Blog · Published 03 June 2025 · Updated 04 June 2025

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Ants are key players in tropical ecosystems—busy performing crucial ecological jobs. But how do they fare amidst the expanding oil palm plantations sweeping across the globe? In their recent review, “The status and role of ants in oil palm landscapes: knowledge gaps and directions for future research,” Jake Stone and colleagues dive into the current state of research on ants in these rapidly transforming habitats. They reveal critical gaps—like the lack of studies beyond Southeast Asia and smallholder plantations—and offer directions for future research to maximize ant-driven ecological benefits within oil palm agriculture.

A Photoblog contribution by Jake Stone

Jake Stone

An Interview compiled by Salvatore Brunetti and edited by Purbayan Ghosh

Anoplolepis gracilipes or the yellow crazy ant, a renowned tramp species, scavenging on a dead Rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) which themselves are considered a significant pest species in oil palm agriculture.

Photomicrograph of a Polyrhachis sp. (left) and Leptogenys sp. (right) collected from oil palm plantations both in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The often highly abundant and functionally important Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) tending scale insects on understory foliage within an oil palm plantation.

Jake Stone with an oil palm smallholder farmer on their plantation in peninsular Malaysia. Smallholdings like this oneaccount for around 40% of global oil palm production.

The perspective from the back of a moped hunting for potential study plantations. In this part of Malaysia there are oil palm plantations as far as the eye can see.

A typical mature monoculture oil palm plantation, complete with a diverse epiphytic plant community.

One of the largest ants species on earth Dinomyrmex gigas carrying what remains of a large arachnid. These ants are fairly common in Southeast Asian forests, but are essentially completely absent from disturbed habitats such as oil palm plantations.

Fellow PhD student (from University of Cambridge) Valentine Reiss-Woolever recording data at a newly planted polyculture plantation. Crops include banana, cassava and oil palm.

University of Cambridge PhD student Martina Harianja (crouched) and colleague Wan Zaki Wan Mamat (standing) from Universiti Putra Malaysia taking samples in a mature oil palm plantation.