Neotropical ant gardens: I. Chemical constituents was written by Seidel, J. L.;Epstein, W. W.;Davidson, D. W.. And the article was included in Journal of Chemical Ecology in 1990.Computed Properties of C8H8O3 This article mentions the following:
In ant gardens of lowland Amazonia, parabiotic ant species Camponotus femoratus and Crematogaster cf. limata parabiotica cultivate a taxonomically diverse group of epiphtic plants, whose establishment is restricted to arboreal carton ant nests. Epiphyte seeds are collected by workers of C. femoratus, the larger of the 2 ants, and stored unharmed in brood chambers where they subsequently germinate. Although seeds of some ant-garden epiphytes bear nutritional rewards, previous studies have shown that these rewards are not sufficient to explain the pattern of ant attraction to seeds. Five aromatic compounds occur frequently in and on the seeds of most ant garden epiphytes and may be chem. cues by which ants recognize propagules of their symbiotic plants. The most widely distributed of these is Me 6-methylsalicylate (6-MMS), previously reported as a major mandibular gland product in related Camponotus species and present in trace quantities in C. femoratus males. (-)-Citronellol (previously unreported in Camponotus) was the principal volatile constituent in extracts of male heads, and (-)-mellein was present in small quantities. Discovery of 6-MMS inside the mandibular glands of male C. femoratus (and its presence in analogous glands of related ants) offers preliminary support for Ule’s (1906) hypothesis that seeds attract ants by mimicking ant brood. In addition, the likely fungistatic activity of seed compounds suggests that they could retard microbial pathogens of ants and plants in the organic detritus of nest gardens. While the presence of identical seed compounds in so many unrelated plant lineages might represent a remarkable case of convergent evolution, other interpretations are possible. In the experiment, the researchers used many compounds, for example, 3-Hydroxy-5-methoxybenzaldehyde (cas: 57179-35-8Computed Properties of C8H8O3).
3-Hydroxy-5-methoxybenzaldehyde (cas: 57179-35-8) belongs to ethers. Ether is less polar than esters, alcohols or amines because of the oxygen atom that is unable to participate in hydrogen bonding due to the presence of bulky alkyl groups on both sides of the oxygen atom. But ether is more polar than alkenes. Electron-deficient reagents are also stabilized by ethers. For example, borane (BH3) is a useful reagent for making alcohols. Pure borane exists as its dimer, diborane (B2H6), a toxic gas that is inconvenient and hazardous to use. Borane forms stable complexes with ethers, however, and it is often supplied and used as its liquid complex with tetrahydrofuran (THF).Computed Properties of C8H8O3
Referemce:
Ether – Wikipedia,
Ether | (C2H5)2O – PubChem