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Number of Cecropia individuals sampled per species in three vegetation types in southwest Bahia from July to December 2012.
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Although the interactions (including mutualism) between Cecropia and numerous ants have been already well documented, biogeographic studies on the distribution patterns of Cecropia with its associated ants have never been conducted in northeast Brazil. This study evaluates: (1) the regional diversity of Cecropia spp. sheltering ants; (2) the divers...
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... glaziovii and C. saxatilis were not found on the coast; C. glaziovii was found only in mesic forest areas and C. saxatilis in dry forest areas. The abundance of Cecropia decreased from the coast towards the countryside and, as a consequence, from rainforest towards dry forest (Table 1). ...Similar publications
Ants account for 30% of terrestrial biomass and are highly sensitive to environmental variables. Present study investigated the effect of altitude (400-900 m) and vegetation type (mixed woodland and pine plantations in Hanthana forest) on litter ants. Two transects were laid at each of the five 100 m elevation levels. For hand-picking and litter ex...
Citations
... Azteca alfari: Es una hormiga de asociación obligatoria con el género de árboles tropicales Cecropia, es la hormiga más común que anida en Cecropia desde áreas abiertas o muy perturbadas (Longino, 2007). Al estudiar la diversidad de hormigas que anidan en Cecropia en el suroeste de Bahía, Brasil, Azteca alfari fue la especie de hormiga más común, encontrándose en el 52% (273) de las plantas examinadas (de Oliveira et al., 2015). ...
... Camponotus cingulatus: Las colonias de esta especie pueden anidar de manera oportunista en árboles de Cecropia (de Oliveira et al., 2015) o en bambú (Fagundes et al., 2010), plantas que se encuentran fácilmente en áreas de regeneración. ...
... Colonies make their nests in rotten wood or under tree bark. Oliveira et al., (2015) found colonies of C. rufipes nesting in Cecropia trees, while Fagundes et al., (2010) found nests in bamboo in Brazil. The workers can be very aggressive and may be found foraging inside the vegetation (litter leaf) or on ground trails. ...
Despite its small territory Ecuador hosts a remarkable biological diversity. Paradoxically, its prominent insect richness has been poorly studied and is usually underestimated in biodiversity inventories. Ants are a major component of such richness. With the aim of promoting myrmecological research, we present 20 new ant records for the country belonging to nine genera and six subfamilies. The species Tapinoma ramulorum inrectum Forel is recorded for the first time in South America. We provide brief taxonomic diagnoses and general comments for all species. Our results expand on the records of Formicidae species previously informed for Ecuador and stress the importance of scientific reference collections as biodiversity repositories.
Keywords:
Biological collections; First record; Formicidae; Neotropical realm; Yasuní
... Azteca species exhibit a range of nesting habits (Longino 2007). Many species in this genus keep mutualistic associations with their host plants, such as Cecropia Loefl., 1758 (Urticaceae), whose structure offers both shelter and food to the ants, which in return, give to the plant protection against herbivory (Hölldobler & Wilson 1990;Dejean et al. 2008;Oliveira et al. 2015;Carneiro et al. 2018;Nagatani et al. 2021). Others build carton nests with several chambers hanged on tree branches (Forel 1904;Bondar 1939;Cuezzo 2003). ...
Azteca chartifex spiriti is a dominant arboreal ant living in forests and agroforests in southeast Bahia, Brazil. This species is especially important as it is considered as one of the main agents of natural biological control in cocoa plantations. This ant builds carton structures following a polydomous nesting strategy. Our study aimed to characterize the spatial structure of its nests and population organization living in. Seven colonies of A. chartifex spiriti were studied. In each one, the main nest, as well as six satellite constructions of different sizes, were measured and their population studied. We randomly sampled 350 workers per colony, 50 from the main nest and 50 from each one of the six selected structures. The sizes of these constructions were negatively related to their distance from the main nest. This central nest is where the reproductive gyne is supposed to be and where brood is present, while in the more peripheral and smallest satellites (~2 cm), workers are tending their mutualistic scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccidae). Practically only workers are found in nests of intermediate size. Workers of A. chartifex spiriti are weakly polymorph and their distribution by size category is not random within the colony territory. Workers are much more variable in the central nest compared to the peripheral structures, particularly in the smallest satellite constructions where minor workers are dominant. These characteristics are interpreted as a form of optimization of resource use by the ants.
... These natural cavities consist of small holes which open into the inside of stems or branches of the tree, and are divided by septa into a series of chambers also known as internodes (Longino 1991a;Oliveira et al. 2015a). In these mutualistic interactions, Azteca ants protect vegetative and reproductive Cecropia organs (Oliveira et al. 2015a(Oliveira et al. , 2015b while plants provide shelter and food, such as Müllerian bodies (Vieira et al. 2010). This relationship is very successful and effective due to the high level of aggressivity of Azteca, which responds directly to leaf herbivory damage (Marting et al. 2018a) and is one of the most studied interactions in Neotropics (Oliveira et al. 2015a(Oliveira et al. , 2015b. ...
... In these mutualistic interactions, Azteca ants protect vegetative and reproductive Cecropia organs (Oliveira et al. 2015a(Oliveira et al. , 2015b while plants provide shelter and food, such as Müllerian bodies (Vieira et al. 2010). This relationship is very successful and effective due to the high level of aggressivity of Azteca, which responds directly to leaf herbivory damage (Marting et al. 2018a) and is one of the most studied interactions in Neotropics (Oliveira et al. 2015a(Oliveira et al. , 2015b. ...
... On the literature just a few studies address A. muelleri biology and morphology (Longino, 1991a;Rocha & Bergallo 1992;Oliveira et al. 2015aOliveira et al. , 2015b and little is known about the biological characteristics of the nests of A. muelleri in Atlantic Forests fragments. In order to fill this gap, we describe some aspects of the natural history of A. muelleri related to (a) intranidal population, (b) nesting structure in C. glaziovii trees, and (c) worker and queen morphometrics. ...
Mutualistic association between Azteca Forel, 1878 ants and Cecropia Loefl. plants are one of the most studied interactions in Neotropics, however, natural history studies of Azteca species still poorly investigated due to the great effort required to conduct detailed descriptive studies. Here, we describe biological aspects of Azteca muelleri Emery, 1893 nesting in Cecropia glaziovii Snethl. in a fragment of Atlantic Forest, addressing (a) colony size; (b) nest distribution on the tree; and (c) worker and queen morphometrics. We collected two C. glaziovii saplings and counted characteristics of the nests and plants. We randomly selected 140 workers to measure and to determine whether intraspecific polymorphism occurs. Workers, immatures, and mealybugs were present in all hollow internodes of plant, and a queen was found. We found isometric morphological variation in A. muelleri. Our study provides new data to understand the biology of A. muelleri nesting in C. glaziovii, one of the most species-rich genera of arboreal ants known for the neotropics.
... Neoponera apicalis 2, 7,10,11,12,14,15,19,24,25,28,29,35,38,39,42,43,46,47,48,57,59,64,66,67,72,73,74,76,77,78,79,82,88 Neoponera bactronica 5,24,32,41,61,63,92 Neoponera bucki 1, 3,7,10,22,26,27,28,37,50,55,74,76,80,83 Neoponera carinulata 10,29,64,78,83 Neoponera cavinodis 13, 29 ...
Composed of two main forest formations, Ombrophilous Forest and Seasonal Forest, the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome is constituted currently by a mosaic of forest remnants and secondary vegetation. Representatives of the Ponerinae ant genus Neoponera are observed mainly in both wet and seasonally dry forests. The aim of this study was to approach the diversity of the genus Neoponera in the north of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil (from the extreme north of its distribution to the Doce River hydrographic basin in the south), associating the occurrence of ant species with the types of vegetation. We have compiled occurrence data from the collection of the Myrmecology Laboratory of the Cocoa Research Center, on internet, or available in literature. We found information on 23 species of Neoponera, including a new record for the Atlantic Forest, Neoponera globularia (Mackay & Mackay, 2010), and a new record for Brazil, Neoponera fiebrigi Forel, 1912. The relative composition of the Neoponera assemblages was evaluated according to the types of vegetation. We found that the occurrence of the genus Neoponera is mainly related to the types of vegetation of the focus region, principally dense forests where a higher diversity was observed.
... Dorymyrmex thoracicus (Dolichoderinae) is a small ant (less than 5 mm) distributed from the south Argentina to central America. Their colonies can be found in the soil and in myrmecophytes like Cecropia pachyastachya (Urticaceae) ( Oliveira et al. 2015). The species has well-differentiated major and minor worker castes. ...
Social insects utilise a complex spatial orientation system mediated by chemical signals. This study investigated how the foraging behavior of ants (Dorymyrmex thoracicus) varies depending upon the quantity of an available resource using a field experiment. Further, we demonstrated computationally that ant displacement is compatible with a model based on pheromone deposition. Our experiment tested how the resource size (large or small) and availability (one or two simultaneous patches) of resources offered influence the number of recruited ants (traffic flow) and the speed of traffic flow both moving toward a resource and returning to the colony. The results showed that the returning flow was higher than the going flow independent of resource. The traffic flow towards a single resource was higher than the flow for either of two simultaneous resources patches offered, thus multiple resources sources split the flow, regardless the fact that resource size did not affect foraging choices. Our results indicated that the ants used an orientation mechanism that can be reproduced by a theorical computer model. With our model we showed that, initially, the displacement of ants followed no clearly detectable pattern. However, with increasing levels of ant recruitment and consequent pheromone deposition on the most used trails, returning displacement revealed the formation of shorter and more organised trails. The model revealed key transition between periods of order and disorder that continued until the flow of information reached an organised state (Shannon entropy). This study highlights an exceptional mechanism of foraging optimization in eusocial insects.
... Around 80% of the trees in the genus Cecropia are myrmecophylous, housing ants in their hollow and segmented stems, and providing them with food resources (Oliveira et al., 2015). Cecropia pachystachya Trec. ...
1. Understanding the degree to which populations and communities are limited by both bottom‐up and top‐down effects is still a major challenge for ecologists, and manipulation of plant quality, for example, can alter herbivory rates in plants. In addition, biotic defence by ants can directly influence the populations of herbivores, as demonstrated by increased rates of herbivory or increased herbivore density after ant exclusion. The aim of this study was to evaluate bottom‐up and top‐down effects on herbivory rates in a mutualistic ant‐plant.
2. In this study, the role of A zteca alfari ants as biotic defence in individuals of C ecropia pachystachya was investigated experimentally with a simultaneous manipulation of both bottom‐up (fertilisation) and top‐down (ant exclusion) factors. Four treatments were used in a fully factorial design, with 15 replicates for each treatment: (i) control plants, without manipulation; (ii) fertilised plants, ants not manipulated; (iii) unfertilised plants and excluded ants and (iv) fertilised plants and ants excluded.
3. Fertilisation increased the availability of foliar nitrogen in C . pachystachya , and herbivory rates by chewing insects were significantly higher in fertilised plants with ants excluded.
4. Herbivory, however, was more influenced by bottom‐up effects – such as the quality of the host plant – than by top‐down effects caused by ants as biotic defences, reinforcing the crucial role of leaf nutritional quality for herbivory levels experienced by plants. Conditionality in ant defence under increased nutritional quality of leaves through fertilisation might explain increased levels of herbivory in plants with higher leaf nitrogen.
... Around 80% of the trees in the genus Cecropia are myrmecophylous, housing ants in their hollow and segmented stems, and providing them with food resources (Oliveira et al., 2015). Cecropia pachystachya Trec. ...
ABSTRACT
1. Understanding the degree to which populations and communities are limited by both bottom-up and top-down effects is still a major challenge for ecologists and manipulation of plant quality, for example, can alter herbivory rates in plants. In addition, biotic defense by ants can directly influence the populations of herbivores, as demonstrated by increased rates of herbivory or increased herbivore density after ant exclusion. We aimed to evaluate bottom-up and top-down effects on herbivory rates in a mutualistic ant-plant.
2. In this study, we experimentally investigated the role of Azteca alfari ants as biotic defense in individuals of Cecropia pachystachya with a simultaneous manipulation of both bottom-up (fertilization) and top-down (ant exclusion) factors. Four treatments were used in a fully factorial design, with 15 replicates for each treatment: 1) control plants, without manipulation; 2) fertilized plants, ants not manipulated; 3) unfertilized plants and excluded ants and 4) fertilized plants and ants excluded.
3. Fertilization increased the availability of foliar nitrogen in C. pachystachya and herbivory rates by chewing insects were significantly higher in fertilized plants with ants excluded.
4. Herbivory, however, was more influenced by bottom-up effects- such as the quality of the host plant - than by top-down effects caused by ants as biotic defenses, reinforcing the crucial role of leaf nutritional quality for herbivory levels experienced by plants. Conditionality in ant defense under increased nutritional quality of leaves through fertilization might explain increased levels of herbivory in plants with higher leaf nitrogen.
... Model validation was based on visual analysis of normalized residuals against all predictor variables (included in the model or not). Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to compare species composition among vegetationhabitats, using the metaMDS function in the vegan R package (Oksanen et al., 2016). We carried out a permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) using the adonis function in vegan to examine the differences among ant assemblages nesting in twigs, using vegetation habitat as explanatory variables. ...
Vegetation structure and microhabitat availability and diversity affect ant assemblage diversity, growth, and dispersal. In this study, we described assemblages of ants nesting in twigs found in the leaf litter, comparing nest characteristics and ant colony sizes among different vegetation habitats at a regional scale. Twigs were collected in urban parks, Eucalyptus plantations, and preserved areas of native Atlantic Forest. We measured the twigs, counted the number of ant colonies, and estimated canopy openness. A total of 51,213 ants from 22 genera and 61 species were recorded. We collected 74, 141, and 283 nests in urban parks, Eucalyptus plantations, and native forest areas, respectively. The richest genera were Pheidole, Camponotus, and Solenopsis. Linepithema neotropicum, Gnamptogenys striatula, and Solenopsis sp.2 were recorded in all study areas. We found only one invasive species, Cardiocondyla wroughtonii. Typically, the canopy in urban park areas was more open, and these areas had lower species richness, lower rate of twig occupancy, and smaller diameter twigs occupied by smaller colonies compared to Eucalyptus plantations or native forest. Ant assemblages were determined mainly by vegetation habitat, followed by twig characteristics. As many ant species use twigs as nest site, twigs are critical habitats for maintaining ant diversity in the leaf litter of areas with varying degrees of complexity in the vegetation structure. However, the availability of twigs as nest resource depended on vegetation structure. In addition, twigs may increase the area occupied by the colonies of some ant species, including Wasmannia auropunctata, which was very frequent in urban parks.
Several aspects of the Cecropia-Azteca mutualism can vary across space and time. The present study explored this variation by focusing on correlations between morphophysiological characteristics of Cecropia pachystachya plants and the sizes of the populations of their breeding ant colonies (Azteca ovaticeps and A. alfari) in secondary forest and pasture habitats in the Atlantic Forest. We hypothesize that forest plants are (i) larger and (ii) harbor more populous colonies than pasture plants. More populous colonies have a greater number of workers to defend their host plant, so we hypothesize that aggressiveness depends on the (iii) ant species and habitat. In each habitat, we collected 60 plants hosting Azteca colonies (queen, worker, immature, and winged individuals). The heights and stem diameters of the plants were measured and the Müllerian bodies were counted. We counted the number of workers, immature individuals, and winged individuals as an indicator of the size of the Azteca populations. We conducted aggressive behavior tests among individuals from 35 different colonies. In general, plants and colonies were smaller in the pasture than in the forest. In both habitats, the populations of A. ovaticeps were larger than those of A. alfari, but they were not more aggressive. The habitat directly influenced the physical structures of the plants and those in turn influenced the size of the ant populations. The conversion of forests into simplified habitats such as pastures can lead to a drastic reduction or local extinction of certain ant populations and compromise Cecropia-Azteca mutualistic relations.
