The ants of the genus Atta are considered important pests to agriculture in the Americas, although Atta species are also important contributors to ecosystem functions in the various habitats in which they occur. The aim of this study was to assemble four complete mitochondrial genomes of the genus Atta, construct the phylogenomic tree, and analyze the gene content, order, and organization. The mitogenomes of A. colombica, A. opaciceps, A. texana, and A.
Atta sexdens rubropilosa (leaf-cutter ants) has a symbiotic association with a fungus and has a negative interaction with other fungi due to parasitism of the fungus cultivated by ants; also, there are several other fungi with no exact known role occurring in their cultivated fungus garden. In the present study, we use the ITS region (internal transcribed spacer) to identify fungi in colonies treated with toxic baits. Experiments using two toxic baits were carried out: 0.75g of sulfluramid [0.3%] and 0.75g fipronil [0.003%]. Samples of fungi were collected and cultured in Czapek medium for seven days to allow fungal growth and subsequent identification. Total DNA was isolated from 100-150 mg of mycelium using the CTAB method and using PCR, with the universal primers (ITS4 and ITS5), to amplify the ITS region. Sequencing was performed using the Sanger method. Sequences were subjected to BLAST, allowing the identification of nine different species of the orders Agaricales, Eurotiales, Hypocreales, Pleosporales, Saccharomycetales and Tremellales showing a variation in identity of 96-100%. Using “The Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery” analysis, nine groups were identified, corresponding to species described in NCBI. The K2P distances were used to generate a tree using Neighbour-joining, demonstrating that the species were grouped according to phylogenetic groups. We concluded that leaf-cutter ant colonies exhibited a wide variety of fungi and this study suggested that there is no correlation between the species of fungi isolated with the control method used on the ant nest.
Dianfenthiuron is a pre-insecticide that can be activated by photolysis, and may be a promising formicide. This study evaluated the effect of diafenthiuron after photolysis in colonies of Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel, 1908. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with five treatments and five replications: control (no active ingredient), sulfluramid (standard formicide), diafenthiuron (no exposure to UV), diafenthiuron (2h exposure to UV) and diafenthiuron (6h exposure to UV). Toxic baits were applied at a rate of 0.5 g per colony, and we observed the transport and incorporation of the baits into the colonies. A grading scale was used (0 to 4) to measure the cutting of Acalypha L. (Euphorbiaceae) leaves by workers at 2, 7, 14 and 21 days after application (DAA) and we also measured the garden mass (fungus + adult + brood) at 21 DAA in order to check for growth of the fungus culture. Total loading and incorporation occurred one hour after application of the baits. Colonies that received sulfluramid did not transport leaves at 2 DAA. Workers that received baits with D2h showed an average of 20% transport and 55% incorporation of leaves at 21 DAA. The grading scale indicated that treatments D2h and D6h had the lowest averages, 0.80 and 2.00, respectively. The treatments D2h and D6h reduced cutting of leaves and fungus garden mass, but did not kill the colonies of A. sexdens rubropilosa.
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