Field methods for the study of ants in sugarcane plantations in Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

The harvest of sugarcane is still traditionally done manually with the burning of straw in most cultivated areas in Brazil. However, burning has been gradually eliminated with the relatively recent use of mechanical harvesting. This will result in significant changes in the agroecosystem, as the straw will remain in the field. No investigation on Formicidae found in sugarcane plantations in Southeastern Brazil harvested by this new system has been done yet. Because of their feeding habits, many species of this family may act as predators of several sugarcane pests. In this study, the sampling efficacy of pitfall traps, baits, and underground traps with two types of attractants were evaluated. Pitfall traps gave the largest richness, while abundance was the highest from baiting. Community composition and structure differed in relation to the sampling methods used. The myrmecofauna collected with the same method with different baits was similar. Pitfall trapping was the most efficient method in this type of ecosystem; and sardine, the best attractant, due to its easy handing in the field.

Digging Deeper into the Ecology of Subterranean Ants: Diversity and Niche Partitioning across Two Continents

“…To our knowledge, this is consistent with only one study [30]. In other studies, mainly from South and Central America, Linepithema, Azteca, and Dorymyrmex were uncommon but occasionally present in subterranean baits [31][32][33][34][35]. In the Ponerinae, Hypoponera was only sampled in subterranean baits, although only half of the mentioned studies found this rather common genus.…”

“…This could potentially explain why these studies [30,31] found lower species richness differences between above-ground and hypogaeic ant species. One study [32] found that honey baits attracted fewer species below ground, but sardine baits attracted similar amounts below and above ground. Our two comparable baits would be melezitose and crushed insects, as sources of carbohydrates and protein, respectively, for which we consistently found lower occurrences in the subterranean strata.…”

Can the absence of ants interfere in the arthropods abundance on corn plants (Zea mays L. - Poaceae)?

“…In Europe, some studies have been made in order to assess the potential of ants as agents for biological control in pinus (Neuvonen et al, 2012) and olive orchards (Paredes et al, 2013) reforestation areas. Similar studies have been made in cotton (Kaplan & Eubanks, 2005;Wickings & Ruberson, 2011), corn (Knutson & Campos, 2008), cocoa (Philpott & Armbrecht, 2006;Tadu et al, 2014), sugar cane (Souza et al, 2010) and orchards (Fernandes et al, 2012) in North and South America.…”

Worker morphology of the ant Gnamptogenys striatula Mayr (Formicidae, Ectatomminae) in different landscapes from the Atlantic Forest domain

“…This species occurs throughout Central and South America (Kempf, 1972;Giraud et al, 2000) and across biomes, including disturbed areas (Souza et al, 2010;Mentone et al, 2011). Gnamptogenys striatula can form nests in trunks (Lattke, 1990) and twigs Souza et al, 2012) at different stages of decomposition in the litterfall; however, nests can also be built under rocks and in rock crevices (Lattke, 1990), and workers can be observed foraging in the litterfall Suguituru et al, 2011Suguituru et al, , 2013.…”