Chemical and behavioural studies of the trail-following pheromone in the leaf-cutting ant Atta opaciceps, Borgmeier (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Campos, Rousseau da Silva; Mendonça, Adriana de Lima; Cabral, Cyro Rego; Vaníčková, Lucie; Nascimento, Ruth R. Do

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2015.12.008

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…However, the strength of this effect at the group level, if real, is sufficiently small not to be easily detectable, and thus is also perhaps of no great biological importance because it is overshadowed by other sources of variation (see below). Thus, although it is best practice to always ensure that animals in behavioural experiments are in an appropriate task state, our results lend credibility to the many trail following experiments in which task states are not controlled (Simon & Hefetz, ; Aron et al , ; Cammaerts et al , ; Reinhard & Kaib, ; Witte et al , ; Grüter et al , ; van Oudenhove et al , ; Cristaldo et al , ; von Thienen et al , , ; Campos et al , ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Pheromone trail following in the ant Lasius niger: high accuracy and variability but no effect of task state

et al. 2016

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The use of pheromone trails in ant colony organization is an important model for understanding collective decision-making and complex adaptive systems. The ant Lasius niger L. (Hymenoptera: Fomicidae) is one of the main model organisms used for such studies. Key to understanding pheromone trail use by ants is knowing how well trails are followed. The results of a previous study suggest that L. niger trail following is poor, with between 60% and 70% accuracy at a T bifurcation. It is hypothesized that the true trail following accuracy is higher, and that the low accuracy reported previously is the result of a methodological error. Specifically, it is hypothesized that 'task state' (i.e. what the ants 'thought they were doing') affected pheromone following accuracy. In the present study, the task state of the ants is set experimentally to one of three states: scouting (completely naive), recruited (having information that food has been found, but not where it is) and shuttling (having a strong memory of the location of a food source). Trail following accuracy is tested for each group. Trail following is found to be more accurate than previously reported: 83%, 82% and 74% correct decisions for scouts, recruits and shuttlers, respectively. However, the difference between the three groups is not significant. Importantly, very high inter-trial variation is reported both in the present study and in experiments from other research groups. This variation is unexplainable by trail strengths or colony-level differences, and is highlighted as an important factor when experimentally measuring trail following.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Pheromone trail following in the ant Lasius niger: high accuracy and variability but no effect of task state

et al. 2016

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“…Leaf‐cutting ants of genus Atta are common insects in most of neotropical and subtropical habitats (Hudson, Turner, Herz, & Robinson, ; Weber, ) and therefore have remarkable ecological and economic importance (Boulogne, Ozier‐Lafontaine, & Loranger‐Merciris, ). They live in obligate symbiosis with a fungus cultivates on fresh leaves (Mueller et al., ; Richard, Hefetz, Christides, & Errard, ) collected from a wide variety of plants (Campos, Mendonça, Cabral, Vaníčková, & Nascimento, ; Marinho, Della Lucia, Guedes, Ribeiro, & Lima, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formicidal activity of indole derivatives on Atta opaciceps (Borgmeier): Lethal, behavioural and locomotive effects

Costa

Cavalcanti

Santana

et al. 2018

J Applied Entomology

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The leaf‐cutting ants of the genus Atta are of extreme importance for agriculture and forestry. Few active products can be employed to control these pests and, therefore, the discovery of new insecticidal products represents a fundamental strategy for its management. In this study, we evaluated the mortality, behaviour and locomotion of workers of Atta opaciceps (Borgmeier) exposed to synthesized indole derivatives. The most active compound was 4d [1‐(1H‐indol‐3‐yl)pentan‐1‐one] (LD50 = 0.018 μg/mg), while the 4e [1‐(1H‐indol‐3‐yl)hexan‐1‐one] (LD50 = 3.82 μg/mg) was the least active compound. These two derivatives reduced the survival of A. opaciceps over time and altered the behaviour and locomotion of these ants. This study demonstrates the potential of indole derivatives to produce new formicidal products, since, in addition to being effective, it also affects the ant's behaviour and locomotion.

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Perspectives of Biological Analysis in Latin America Using Multi and Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography: A Mini-review

2020

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Chemical and behavioural studies of the trail-following pheromone in the leaf-cutting ant Atta opaciceps, Borgmeier (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

Pheromone trail following in the ant Lasius niger: high accuracy and variability but no effect of task state

Pheromone trail following in the ant Lasius niger: high accuracy and variability but no effect of task state

Formicidal activity of indole derivatives on Atta opaciceps (Borgmeier): Lethal, behavioural and locomotive effects

Perspectives of Biological Analysis in Latin America Using Multi and Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography: A Mini-review

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