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68 results for “leaf-cutting ants”
Leaf-cutting ants negatively impact the regeneration of the Caatinga dry forest across abandoned pastures
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Data from: Effects of pasture and forest microclimatic conditions on the foraging activity of leaf-cutting ants
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Phylogenomic reconstruction reveals new insights into the evolution and biogeography of Atta leaf-cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
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Data from: Tree seedling responses to leaf-cutting ants herbivory in Atlantic Forest restoration sites
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Human disturbance and aridity influence biomass harvesting by leaf-cutting ants with impacts on nutrient dynamics in a Caatinga dry forest
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Potential of alternative control of leaf-cutting ants using essential oils: A systematic review
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Data from: Leaf-cutting ant nests support less dense and impoverished seed assemblages in a human-modified Caatinga dry forest
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Data from: Rain shadow effects predict population differences in thermal tolerance of leaf-cutting ant workers (Atta cephalotes)
<p>Tests of hypotheses for the evolution of thermal physiology often rely on mean temperatures, but mounting evidence suggests geographic variation in temperature extremes is also an important predictor of species' thermal tolerances. Although the tropics are less thermally variable than higher latitude regions, rain shadows on the leeward sides of mountains can experience greater diel and seasonal variation in temperature than windward sites. Rain shadows provide opportunities to test predictions about the relationships of extreme temperatures with thermal physiology while controlling for latitude. We tested the hypothesis that populations of leaf-cutting ants (Atta cephalotes) in leeward, montane, and windward sites in Costa Rica would differ in upper thermal tolerances (CT<sub>max</sub>) of workers. As predicted from rain shadow effects via extreme high temperatures, the leeward rain-shadow site yielded the highest mean CT<sub>max</sub> (rain shadow site 42.1±0.3 °C, Montane site 38.2±0.5 °C, windward site 38.2±0.3 °C). This suggests that high-temperature extremes in tropical rain shadow forests can select for higher thermal tolerances. CT<sub>max</sub> increased with worker body size within sites, but CT<sub>max</sub> increased with body size more gradually at the two lowland sites, as predicted if local high temperatures selected more strongly on the most thermally vulnerable society members (small workers). This suggests that warmer lowland climates selected for colonies with less variation in heat tolerance than cooler high elevation climates.</p>
Data from: Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
Several factors may restrict the acquisition of food to below the levels predicted by the optimization theory. However, how the design of structures that animals build for foraging restrict the entry of food are less known. Using scaling relationships we determined whether the design of the entrances of leaf-cutting ant nests restricts resource input into the colony. We measured nests and foraging parameters in 25 nests of Atta cephalotes in a tropical rain forest. Ant flux was reduced to up to 60% at nest entrances. The width of all entrances per nest increased at similar rates as nest size, but the width of nest entrances increased with the width of its associated trail at rates below those expected by isometry. The fact that entrance widths grow slower than trail widths suggests that the enlargement of entrance holes does not reach the dimensions needed to avoid delays when foraging rates are high and loads are big. The enlargement of nest entrances appears to be restricted by the digging effort required to enlarge nest tunnels, and by increments in the risk of inundation, predator/parasitoid attacks, and microclimate imbalances inside the nest. The design of the extended phenotypes can also restrict the ingress of food into the organisms, offering additional evidence to better understand eventual controversies between empirical data and the foraging theory.
With a little help from my friends: individual and collaborative performance during trail clearing in leaf-cutting ants
<p>Social organisms express collaborative behaviours, allowing them to solve problems that exceed their individual capabilities. Group coordination and environmental context are some of the factors that may determine the performance of individual and collaborative strategies. Using the trail-clearing behaviour of leaf-cutting ants, we evaluated experimentally for both strategies whether the success probability and clearing time depend on problem characteristics and context. We placed obstacles of different sizes and shapes (problem characteristics), in trails with different foragers' fluxes and soil roughness (context) in 10 field nests of <i>Atta cephalotes, </i>and<i> </i>compared removal success (i.e. if ants could remove obstacles) and time of individual and collaborative strategies. Very large obstacles could only be removed collaboratively, confirming individual limitations for transporting large objects. For all obstacle shapes, collaborative removals were more successful but took longer, suggesting that coordination among individuals delays these actions. Individual strategies were faster, regardless of ant flux. However, as ant flux increased, removal success was higher for collaborative than for individual removals. Lastly, trail roughness had no effect. This work highlights one advantage of sociality, the option of collaboratively solving problems that exceed the individual abilities. In addition, it reveals the associated costs of joint actions, since they can be time-consuming presumably due to coordination problems.Social organisms express collaborative behaviours, allowing them to solve problems that exceed their individual capabilities. Group coordination and environmental context are some of the factors that may determine the performance of individual and collaborative strategies. Using the trail-clearing behaviour of leaf-cutting ants, we evaluated experimentally for both strategies whether the success probability and clearing time depend on problem characteristics and context. We placed obstacles of different sizes and shapes (problem characteristics), in trails with different foragers' fluxes and soil roughness (context) in 10 field nests of <i>Atta cephalotes, </i>and<i> </i>compared removal success (i.e. if ants could remove obstacles) and time of individual and collaborative strategies. Very large obstacles could only be removed collaboratively, confirming individual limitations for transporting large objects. For all obstacle shapes, collaborative removals were more successful but took longer, suggesting that coordination among individuals delays these actions. Individual strategies were faster, regardless of ant flux. However, as ant flux increased, removal success was higher for collaborative than for individual removals. Lastly, trail roughness had no effect. This work highlights one advantage of sociality, the option of collaboratively solving problems that exceed the individual abilities. In addition, it reveals the associated costs of joint actions, since they can be time-consuming presumably due to coordination problems.</p>
Data from: Interaction specificity between leaf-cutting ants and vertically transmitted Pseudonocardia bacteria
Background: The obligate mutualism between fungus-growing ants and microbial symbionts offers excellent opportunities to study the specificity and stability of multi-species interactions. In addition to cultivating fungus gardens, these ants have domesticated actinomycete bacteria to defend gardens against the fungal parasite Escovopsis and possibly other pathogens. Panamanian Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutting ants primarily associate with actinomycetes of the genus Pseudonocardia. Colonies are inoculated with one of two vertically transmitted phylotypes (Ps1 or Ps2), and maintain the same phylotype over their lifetime. We performed a cross-fostering experiment to test whether co-adaptations between ants and bacterial phylotypes have evolved, and how this affects bacterial growth and ant prophylactic behavior after infection with Escovopsis. Results: We show that Pseudonocardia readily colonized ants irrespective of their colony of origin, but that the Ps2 phylotype, which was previously shown to be better able to maintain its monocultural integrity after workers became foragers than Ps1, reached a higher final cover when grown on its native host than on alternative hosts. The frequencies of major grooming and weeding behaviors co-varied with symbiont/host combinations, showing that ant behavior also was affected when cuticular actinomycete phylotypes were swapped. Conclusion: These results show that the interactions between leaf-cutting ants and Pseudonocardia bear signatures of mutual co-adaptation within a single ant population.
Data from: Differential gene expression in Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants after challenges with two fungal pathogens
Social insects in general and leaf-cutting ants in particular have increased selection pressures on their innate immune system due to their social lifestyle and monoclonality of the symbiotic fungal cultivar. As this symbiosis is obligate for both parties, prophylactic behavioural defences against infections are expected to increase either ant survival or fungus-garden survival, but also to possibly trade off when specific infections differ in potential danger. We examined the effectiveness of prophylactic behaviours and modulations of innate immune defences by a combination of inoculation bioassays and genome-wide transcriptomic studies (RNA-Seq), using an ant pathogen (Metarhizium brunneum) and a fungus-garden pathogen (Escovopsis weberi) and administering inoculations both directly and indirectly (via the symbiotic partner). Upon detection of pathogen conidia, ant workers responded by increasing both general activity and the frequency of specific defence behaviours (self-grooming, allo-grooming, garden-grooming) independent of the pathogen encountered. This trend was also evident in the patterns of gene expression change. Both direct and indirect (via fungus garden) inoculations with Metarhizium induced a general up-regulation of gene expression, including a number of well-known immune-related genes. In contrast, direct inoculation of the fungus garden by Escovopsis induced an overall down-regulation of ant gene expression, whereas indirect inoculation (via the ants) did not, suggesting that increased activity of ants to remove this fungus-garden pathogen is costly and involves trade-offs with the activation of other physiological pathways.
Foraging Networks of the Leaf-Cutting Ant Atta bisphaerica
<p>This dataset describes the foraging network of four nests of the leaf-cutting ant Atta bisphaerica over an 8-month period covering the whole humid season and part of the dry season. All nests were in a pasture located in the southern part of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, near the municipality of Coronel Pacheco( 21° 39'S, 43° 21'W, altitude: 800m). The networks consist of underground tunnels connecting the nests to distant foraging holes from which one or several foraging trails depart to reach resource patches. The dataset gives the positions and status (active, inactive, close) of the foraging holes as well as the number, length and terminal position of each trail departing from these holes.</p>
Figs. 2–3 in The First Records of Bycrea villosa Pascoe (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in the United States, Central America and Colombia and Notes on Its Association with Leaf-Cutting Ants
Figs. 2–3. Bycrea villosa, larva, dorsal and lateral view. Body length, 13 mm. Specimen associated with adult beetles from Pima County, Arizona.
Fig. 5 in Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the Neotropical region
Fig. 5 Mating flight activity of Acromyrmex fowleri alates recorded between 1994 and 1996. The number of alate A. fowleri individuals is depicted on the y-axis and the time period of our collections is depicted on the x-axis
Fig. 4 in Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the Neotropical region
Fig. 4 Comparative anatomy of male genitalia (a, b), female forewings (c, d), and female hindwings (e, f) of Acromyrmex fowleri (a, c, e) and Acromyrmex rugosus (b, d, f). The scale bars represent 0.1 mm in a, 0.2 mm in b, and 1 mm in c–f
Fig. 3 in Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the Neotropical region
Fig. 3 Scanning electron micrographs of an Acromyrmex fowleri male (a) and female (b–f) depicting a the male head in frontal view, b the female head in lateral view, c the female maxilla showing the
Fig. 1 in Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the Neotropical region
Fig. 1 Gynes of the social parasite Acromyrmex fowleri (a, c, e) and its host Acromyrmex rugosus (b, d, f) in full-face (a, b), lateral (c, d), and dorsal (e, f) views. The scale bars represent 0.5 mm in a and b, and 1 mm in c–f
Fig. 2 in Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the Neotropical region
Fig. 2 Males of the social parasite Acromyrmex fowleri (a, c, e) and its host Acromyrmex rugosus (b, d, f) in full-face (a, b), lateral (c, d), and dorsal (e, f) views. The scale bars represent 0.5 mm in a and b, and 1 mm in c–f
Figure 4 in Biological attributes of Argentinian phorid parasitoids (Insecta: Diptera: Phoridae) of leaf-cutting ants, Acromyrmex and Atta
Figure 4. Natural parasitism rate by phorid species reared from ants collected from foraging trails at San Cristóbal for Acromyrmex phorids and discriminated by seasons. Numbers represent nest codes. Ant species names are abbreviated in the upper-left corner with the three first letters of the species epithet (lob: Acromyrmex lobicornis, lun: Acromyrmex lundii, hey: Acromyrmex heyeri, cra: Acromyrmex crassispinus, his: Acromyrmex hispidus, fra: Acromyrmex fracticornis, str: Acromyrmex striatus). Note that the y and x axes differ across plots, and the bottom plot from the right shows results for two ant species (Ac. fracticornis parasitized by "other phorids" in grey and Ac. striatus parasitized by Ap. exstriatus in white).
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Allen Brain Atlas
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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