Queen influence on workers behavior of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa (Forel, 1908)

Sousa-Souto, Leandro; Souza, Danival José de

doi:10.1590/s1519-69842006000300016

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…This is not expected to be a major limitation as C. niger ants are polydomous and it is most likely that some of their natural nests contain queens while others do not [32]. Furthermore, previous works report no observed effects of the presence of the queen on behaviour outside the nest [41,42]. The experiments were conducted during August-November 2011.…”

Section: Colonies Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desert ants achieve reliable recruitment across noisy interactions

Razin

Eckmann

Feinerman

2013

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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We study how desert ants, Cataglyphis niger, a species that lacks pheromonebased recruitment mechanisms, inform each other about the presence of food. Our results are based on automated tracking that allows us to collect a large database of ant trajectories and interactions. We find that interactions affect an ant's speed within the nest. Fast ants tend to slow down, whereas slow ones increase their speed when encountering a faster ant. Faster ants tend to exit the nest more frequently than slower ones. So, if an ant gains enough speed through encounters with others, then she tends to leave the nest and look for food. On the other hand, we find that the probability for her to leave the nest depends only on her speed, but not on whether she had recently interacted with a recruiter that has found the food. This suggests a recruitment system in which ants communicate their state by very simple interactions. Based on this assumption, we estimate the information-theoretical channel capacity of the ants' pairwise interactions. We find that the response to the speed of an interacting nest-mate is very noisy. The question is then how random interactions with ants within the nest can be distinguished from those interactions with a recruiter who has found food. Our measurements and model suggest that this distinction does not depend on reliable communication but on behavioural differences between ants that have found the food and those that have not. Recruiters retain high speeds throughout the experiment, regardless of the ants they interact with; non-recruiters communicate with a limited number of nestmates and adjust their speed following these interactions. These simple rules lead to the formation of a bistable switch on the level of the group that allows the distinction between recruitment and random noise in the nest. A consequence of the mechanism we propose is a negative effect of ant density on exit rates and recruitment success. This is, indeed, confirmed by our measurements.

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Section: Colonies Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desert ants achieve reliable recruitment across noisy interactions

Razin

Eckmann

Feinerman

2013

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…Equally, the workers' communication did not change. So it seems as if the queen has no influence on external activities …”

Section: Pheromones Of Insectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…So it seems as if the queen has no influence on external activities. [3] Up to now more than 50 exocrine glands have been found in ants. Living on the ground, the trail pheromone takes a special role in the ant's life.…”

Section: Pheromones Of Insectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Essential oil components as pheromones. A review.

Müller

Buchbauer

2011

Flavour & Fragrance J

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Studies regarding pheromes consisting of essential oil components of various plants and released by insects and arachnids (pests) were compiled for this review. For example, verbenol and verbenone were found to be an essential part of the bark beetle's aggregation pheromone, released with the intent to round up its conspecifics. Concerning plant lice, aphids use (E)-β-farnesene as an alarm pheromone. Furthermore, nepetalactol and nepetalactone, two essential oil components of the cat mint (Lamiaceae), occur as an aphid-released sex pheromone, emitted to induce mating behaviour. On the other hand, some bees imitate a linalool-containing orchid odour as their sex pheromone and thus attract their mating partners. The sand fly, responsible for the American visceral leishmaniasis, uses derivatives of either α-himachalene, germacrene D or cembrene as a sex pheromone. Studies about termites reveal a large amount of different presumable pheromone compounds that also appear as essential oil components, e.g. neocembrene as a part of the trail pheromone, (E,E)-α-farnesene as an alarm pheromone and other terpenes, such as for example γ-cadinene as primer pheromone, enforcing the effect of the juvenile hormone and therefore determining about caste development. Concerning the pest insects, management strategies, conducted with pheromone traps, are presented or compared. Regarding arachnids, studies about spider pheromones are rare, whereas more information is available about mites, which release neral and geranial as an alarm pheromone.

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“…Some studies have shown that the queen is not only important for reproduction but can also influence colony cohesion ( Vienne et al, 1998 ; Della Lucia et al, 2003 ). According to Sousa-Souto and Souza (2006) , the absence of the queen in a colony of leaf-cutting ants Atta sexdens rubropilosa increased the workers’ mortality and decreased the refuse disposal, that could indicate a disruption in colony’s internal tasks. In addition, the workers in the absence of the queen are able to carry out the basic activities of the colony, but with a lower level of organization ( Hölldobler and Wilson, 1990 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Virulence of the Fungi Escovopsis and Escovopsioides to a Leaf-Cutting Ant-Fungus Symbiosis

et al. 2021

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Eusocial insects interact with a diversity of parasites that can threaten their survival and reproduction. The amount of harm these parasites cause to their hosts (i.e., their virulence) can be influenced by numerous factors, such as the ecological context in which the parasite and its host are inserted. Leaf-cutting ants (genera Atta, Acromyrmex and Amoimyrmex, Attini: Formicidae) are an example of a eusocial insect whose colonies are constantly threatened by parasites. The fungi Escovopsis and Escovopsioides (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) are considered a highly virulent parasite and an antagonist, respectively, to the leaf-cutting ants’ fungal cultivar, Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Basidiomycota: Agaricales). Since Escovopsis and Escovopsioides are common inhabitants of healthy colonies that can live for years, we expect them to have low levels of virulence. However, this virulence could vary depending on ecological context. We therefore tested two hypotheses: (i) Escovopsis and Escovopsioides are of low virulence to colonies; (ii) virulence increases as colony complexity decreases. For this, we used three levels of complexity: queenright colonies (fungus garden with queen and workers), queenless colonies (fungus garden and workers, without queen) and fungus gardens (without any ants). Each was inoculated with extremely high concentrations of conidia of Escovopsis moelleri, Escovopsioides nivea, the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma longibrachiatum or a blank control. We found that these fungi were of low virulence to queenright colonies. The survival of queenless colonies was decreased by E. moelleri and fungus gardens were suppressed by all treatments. Moreover, E. nivea and T. longibrachiatum seemed to be less aggressive than E. moelleri, observed both in vivo and in vitro. The results highlight the importance of each element (queen, workers and fungus garden) in the leaf-cutting ant-fungus symbiosis. Most importantly, we showed that Escovopsis may not be virulent to healthy colonies, despite commonly being described as such, with the reported virulence of Escovopsis being due to poor colony conditions in the field or in laboratory experiments.

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Queen influence on workers behavior of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa (Forel, 1908)

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Desert ants achieve reliable recruitment across noisy interactions

Desert ants achieve reliable recruitment across noisy interactions

Essential oil components as pheromones. A review.

Low Virulence of the Fungi Escovopsis and Escovopsioides to a Leaf-Cutting Ant-Fungus Symbiosis

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