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86 results for “cryptic ants”
Data from: Cryptic diversity, high host specificity and reproductive synchronization in army ant-associated Vatesus beetles
Army ants and their arthropod symbionts represent one of the most species-rich animal associations on Earth, and constitute a fascinating example of diverse host-symbiont interaction networks. However, despite decades of research, our knowledge of army ant symbionts remains fragmentary due to taxonomic ambiguity and the inability to study army ants in the lab. Here we present an integrative approach that allows us to reliably determine species boundaries, assess biodiversity, match different developmental stages and sexes, and to study the life cycles of army ant symbionts. This approach is based on a combination of community sampling, DNA barcoding, morphology and physiology. As a test case, we applied this approach to the staphylinid beetle genus Vatesus and its different Eciton army ant host species at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. DNA barcoding led to the discovery of cryptic biodiversity and, in combination with extensive community sampling, revealed strict host partitioning with no overlap in host range. Using DNA barcoding, we were also able to match the larval stages of all focal Vatesus species. In combination with studies of female reproductive physiology, this allowed us to reconstruct almost the complete life cycles of the different beetle species. We show that Vatesus beetles are highly adapted to the symbiosis with army ants, in that their reproduction and larval development are synchronized with the stereotypical reproductive and behavioral cycles of their host colonies. Our approach can now be used to study army ant-symbiont communities more broadly, and to obtain novel insights into co-evolutionary and ecological dynamics in species-rich host-symbiont systems.
Data from: Cryptic recessive lethality of a supergene controlling social organization in ants
<p>Supergenes are clusters of linked loci that control complex phenotypes, such as alternate forms of social organization in ants. Explaining the long-term maintenance of supergenes is challenging, particularly when the derived haplotype lacks homozygous lethality and causes gene drive. In the Alpine silver ant, <em>Formica selysi</em>, a large and ancient social supergene with two haplotypes, <em>M</em> and <em>P</em>, controls colony social organization. Single-queen colonies only contain <em>MM </em>females, while multi-queen colonies contain <em>MP</em> and <em>PP</em> females. The derived <em>P</em> haplotype, found only in multi-queen colonies, selfishly enhances its transmission through maternal effect killing, which could have led to its fixation. A population genetic model showed that a stable social polymorphism can only be maintained under a narrow set of conditions, which includes partial assortative mating by social form (which is known to occur in the wild), and low fitness of <em>PP</em> queens. With a combination of field and laboratory experiments, we show that the <em>P</em> haplotype has deleterious effects on female fitness. The survival rate of <em>PP</em> queens and workers was around half the one of other genotypes. Moreover, <em>P</em>-carrying queens had lower fertility and fecundity compared to other queens. We discuss how cryptic lethal effects of the P haplotype help stabilize this ancient polymorphism.</p>
Fig. 9 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 9. Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (holotype worker). (A) Lateral view from left. (B) Dorsal view. (C) Head, frontal view. The scale bars equal 0.5 mm. ©NHMW Image Database and www.antbase.net (A and B), and Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz (C), published with permission.
Fig. 5 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 5. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on mtDNA. The tree is a consensus tree resulting from a Bayesian analysis of 1113 bp of cox1, broken down to haplotypes. The node-support values are posterior probabilities, values of 1.0 being depicted as filled circles; values for nodes following the basal divergence within species are omitted. The scale bar denotes 0.1 substitutions/site. Haplotypes are numbered as in Table 1. For country codes see Table 1. "?" denotes ambiguous nests; see Section 5.4 for details.
Fig. 8 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 8. Geographic distribution of Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (=T. sp. A), T. caespitum et sp. B (not shown: nests #i652, #i653, #i654, and #i769 from Russia and Armenia) and T. impurum; see Section 5.4. for details concerning ambiguous nests #260 and #261. Map from ArcEditor 9.3.1 (ESRI) software, elevation data added from WorldClim database (Hijmans et al., 2005).
Fig. 6 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 6. Graphical method following Evanno et al. (2005) to detect the number K* of clusters that best fit the data, using 133 SNPs from the 67 haplotypes of 1113 bp of cox1 of Tetramorium caespitum, ambiguous nests (denoted by "?" in Fig. 5; see Section 5.4 for details), T. alpestre sp.n. (=T. sp. A), T. sp. B and T. impurum. (A) Mean L(K) over 20 runs for each K value; vertical bars indicate 1 standard deviation. (B) Delta K; the value of K with the highest value of the delta K distribution, i.e., 5, is K*. Note that delta K is not plotted for K = 1, because the calculation of delta K requires values of L(K − 1).
Fig. 7 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 7. Estimated structure in the mitochondrial DNA data of Tetramorium caespitum, ambiguous nests (denoted by "?" in Fig. 5; see Section 5.4. for details), T. alpestre sp.n. (=T. sp. A), T. sp. B and T. impurum, using 133 SNPs from the 67 haplotypes of 1113 bp of cox1, and K = 5, identified as the number of clusters that best fit the data (Fig. 6). Each haplotype is represented by a vertical bar which is partitioned into up to K shaded segments that represent the haplotype's estimated membership fractions in K clusters. Haplotypes are numbered as in Table 1.
Fig. 1 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 1. (A–C) Definition of morphometric characters: (A) posterior part of mesosoma in lateral view; the sum of the angles α, β, γ, δ, ε is not necessarily 360◦ because these are angles in a three-dimensional tetrahedron described by SPST, PLSP, MPPL, MPST, MPSP, and PLST; (B) petiolar node in lateral view; (C) mesosoma in lateral view. For definition of morphometric characters see Section 3.4.
Fig. 3 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 3. (A–F) Lateral (A, C, E; right side depicted) and dorsocaudal (B, D, F) view of male genitalia in (A and B) Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (=T. sp. A.), (C and D) T. impurum and (E and F) T. caespitum et sp. B. The dorsocaudal viewing position is indicated by the arrow in (A). The scale bar equals 1 mm. Pilosity and pubescence omitted.
Fig. 4 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 4. Altitudinal and latitudinal distribution of Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (=T. sp. A), T. caespitum et sp. B and T. impurum; see Section 5.4. for details concerning ambiguous nests #260 and #261.
Fig. 2 in A multisource solution for a complex problem in biodiversity research: Description of the cryptic ant species Tetramorium alpestre sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 2. Integration of morphology, ecology and molecular genetics at nest level for T. alpestre sp.n (=T. sp. A), T. caespitum et sp. B and T. impurum; each nest is represented by a thin vertical bar; bars of different methods with identical horizontal position refer to the same nest; all nests of which workers were analysed morphometrically are shown; nests exclusively analysed by molecular genetics are not shown; the four nests to the right are the ambiguous nests from which specimens were available for morphological analysis (#260, #261, #i548, #i613). First row: results of classification by DA using the optimal character combination of 14 characters (CL/CW, CS, dCV, FL/CS, ML/CS, MPSP/CS, MW/CS, PENL/CS, PEW/CS, PnHL/CS, PosSPu/CS, PreOc/CS, SLd/CS, TAS) selected from 33 morphometric worker characters and TAS (thermal niche); the bar of each nest is partitioned into shaded segments that represent the probabilities of its species membership as calculated by DA; nests of holotypes of T. alpestre and T. caespitum var. penninum and of neotypes of T. caespitum and T. impurum are indicated. Second row: species identity resulting from analysis of male genital morphology. Third row: species identity resulting from phylogenetic reconstruction using mtDNA gene cox1 (Fig. 5).
Data from: Genetic analyses reveal cryptic diversity in the native North American fire ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Solenopsis)
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Data from: Cuticular hydrocarbons as potential mediators of cryptic species divergence in a mutualistic ant association
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Data from: Phylogenomic inference and demographic model selection suggest peripatric separation of the cryptic steppe ant species Plagiolepis pyrenaica stat. rev.
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Data from: Cryptic recessive lethality of a supergene controlling social organization in ants
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Data from: Cryptic diversity, high host specificity and reproductive synchronization in army ant-associated Vatesus beetles
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The Cryptic impacts of invasion: functional homogenization of tropical ant communities by invasive fire ants
<p>The diversity and distribution of traits in an ecological community shapes its responses to change and the ecosystem processes it modulates. This 'functional diversity', however, is not necessarily a direct outcome of taxonomic diversity. Invasions by exotic insects occur in ecosystems worldwide, but there is limited understanding of how they impact functional diversity. We present the first comprehensive trait-based investigation of the impacts of an ant invasion, and the first incorporating intraspecific polymorphisms in species-level functional diversity. The fire ant <em>Solenopsis invicta</em> is an invasive species with a global distribution. Focusing on invaded and uninvaded plots in tropical grasslands of Hong Kong, we investigated how the presence of <em>S. invicta</em> affects the diversity and distribution of ant species and traits within and across communities, the functional identities of communities, and functionally unique species. Using trait probability density functions, we built trait spaces for 29 species, and scaled up these components to calculate functional diversity at community and landscape levels. We found that invasion had limited effects on species and functional richness but pronounced effects on functional composition. Specifically, invaded communities had fewer functionally-unique individuals, and were characterized by species with narrower heads and bodies and shorter mandibles. Moreover, invaded communities showed substantially higher levels of functional redundancy (+56%) due to a clustering of trait values. Consequently, across the landscape, invaded communities displayed 23% less functional turnover than uninvaded communities despite showing comparable levels of taxonomic turnover – a result confirming theoretical predictions of the effects of high local functional redundancy. In sum, the presence of <em>S. invicta</em> alters the functional properties of multiple local communities selectively, resulting in functional homogenization across the landscape. The disparities between taxonomic and functional impacts of invasion highlight the need to consider how trait diversity across ecological scales shapes biodiversity and its responses to change.</p>
Data from: Turning one into five: integrative taxonomy uncovers complex evolution of cryptic species in the harvester ant Messor "structor"
Seed harvesting ants are ecosystem engineers that shape vegetation, nutrient cycles, and microclimate. Progress in ecological research is, however, slowed down by poor species delimitation. For example, it has not been resolved to date, how many species the European harvester ant Messor "structor" (Latreille, 1798) represents. Since its first description, splitting into additional taxa was often proposed but not accepted later on due to inconsistent support from morphology and ecology. Here, we took an iterative integrative-taxonomy approach – comparing multiple, independent data sets on the same sample – and used traditional morphometrics, Wolbachia symbionts, mitochondrial DNA, amplified fragment length polymorphism, and ecological niche modelling. Using the complementarity of the data sets applied, we resolved multiple, strong disagreements over the number of species, ranging from four to ten, and the allocation of individuals to species. We consider most plausible a five-species hypothesis and conclude the taxonomic odyssey by redescribing Messor structor, M. ibericus Santschi, 1925, and M. muticus (Nylander, 1849) stat.rev., and by describing two new species, M. ponticus sp.n. and M. mcarthuri sp.n. The evolutionary explanations invoked in resolving the various data conflicts include pronounced morphological crypsis, incomplete lineage-sorting or ongoing cospeciation of endosymbionts, and peripatric speciation – these ants' significance to evolutionary biology parallels that to ecology. The successful solution of this particular problem illustrates the usefulness of the integrative approach to other systematic problems of comparable complexity and the importance of understanding evolution to drawing correct conclusions on species' attributes, including their ecology and biogeography.
Fig. 6 in NC-Clustering demonstrates heterospecificity of the cryptic ant species Temnothorax luteus (FOREL, 1874) and T. racovitzai (BONDROIT, 1918) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 6: Lectotype of Temnothorax racovitzai (BONDROIT, 1918) in lateral view.
Figure 4 from: Hita Garcia F, Fisher B (2014) Taxonomic revision of the cryptic ant genus Probolomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Proceratiinae) in Madagascar. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 61(1): 65-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.61.7634
Figure 4 - Probolomyrmex tani holotype worker (CASENT0041505). A Body in profile B Body in dorsal view C Head in full-face view.
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Allen Brain Atlas
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