Twigs occupied by Pheidole Westwood, 1839: Is there a difference between species?

Abstract

Pheidole is a genus with wide geographical distribution and diversity, especially in the leaf litter of neotropical forests, where nests are found at the soil-litter interface, in the soil and vegetation, among leaves, seeds, and twigs. Despite the availability of twigs and Pheidole species diversity in the leaf litter, most of this resource is not occupied, which suggests the existence of filters. This study analyzes whether twigs occupied by Pheidole species differ for the outer structure and anatomy of the wood. Twigs were collected from preserved Atlantic Forest fragments in southeastern Brazil. Twigs with Pheidole colonies were measured and the wood anatomy analyzed. We collected 224 twigs with Pheidole colonies, but the analysis was done at 41% due to wood decomposition. Five species were recorded in these twigs, which differ for the outer structure and anatomy of the wood. These results suggest the existence of preference in the occupation of twigs determined by wood structure.

Nesting of arboreal ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in artificial substrates in coffee plantations in the Colombian Andes

“…However, there was not enough data to test for differences in ant traits according to substrate features. Barroso et al (2020), in Brazil, found that different species of Pheidole colonized twigs with different wood anatomy and structure, which suggests that wood structure determines preference for twig occupation. Test 1 Figure 3.…”

Occurrence of Pheidole tijucana Borgmeier, 1927 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

“…In the leaf litter, Pheidole may occupy fruits, seeds, and wood in varying degrees of decomposition (Castaño-Menzes et al 2015;Casadei-Ferreira 2021), and the latter includes twigs (Fernandes et al 2019). Barroso et al (2020) and Almeida et al (2021) suggested that the occupation of twigs by species of Pheidole could be due to a process of selection. Pheidole tijucana Borgmeier, 1927 belongs to the (Feitosa et al 2021;Silva et al 2022).…”