Biodiversity as a focus for conservation efforts has received increased attention since the second half of the last century. Until recently a more landscape-level view of biodiversity has prevailed. This essay proposes to discuss natural diversity in ways that embrace the extreme richness inherent in plant animal interactions, including not only trophic relationships, but also aspects of life history, biology, and behavior of related species. The ant-plant-herbivore systems in Cerrado vegetation are pointed out as good model for gaining a better understanding of "interaction biodiversity".
Ant; Cerrado; extrafloral nectary; herbivory; plant
