Distribution of Mound-Building Ant Species (<i>Formica</i>spp., Hymenoptera) in Finland: Preliminary Results of a National Survey

Punttila, Pekka; Kilpeläinen, Jouni

doi:10.5735/086.046.0101

Cited by 61 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Second, mound builders may decline in abundance at higher elevations, because suitable vegetal materials become scarce. In line with this hypothesis, Punttila and Kilpeläinen (2009) found that the frequency of mound nesters decreased at a higher latitude and that the trait was not present north of the tree limit. Our experiment measuring thermal insulation suggested that vegetal material from a mound nest provided more insulation in a cold environment and heated faster compared with the soil substrate, in line with the prediction of Hölldobler and Wilson (1990).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Reymond

Purcell

Cherix

et al. 2013

Ecological Entomology

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1. Severe environmental conditions filter community species compositions, forming clines of functional diversity along environmental gradients. Here, the changes in functional diversity in ant assemblages with severe environmental conditions in the Swiss Alps were investigated.2. Eight sites were sampled along an elevation gradient (1800-2550 m). The variation in functional diversity was analysed along an elevation gradient considering four traits: social structure (monogynous vs. polygynous), worker size, pupal development, and nest structure.3. Ant species richness and functional diversity decreased with decreasing temperature. Species found in colder habitats tended to live in subterranean nests rather than in mounds and exhibit a polymorphism in queen number, either within or across populations. The phylogenetic diversity did not decrease at colder temperature: Formicinae and Myrmicinae occupied the full range of elevations investigated.4. An insulation experiment indicated that mounds are more thermally insulated against the cold compared with soil. The absence of a mound-building ant from high elevations probably results from a reduction in the amount of vegetal materials provided by coniferous trees.5. More severe abiotic conditions at higher elevations act as a filter on ant assemblages, directly through physiological tolerances to the abiotic conditions and indirectly as the vegetation necessary for nest building shifts with elevation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Reymond

Purcell

Cherix

et al. 2013

Ecological Entomology

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“…One such omission is the sub-family Formicinae and the genus Formica , which is a key group and has been extensively studied in the context of social evolution [10]–[13]. The genus Formica comprises the mount-building wood ants, which dominate the ant fauna especially in boreal forest ecosystems [14]. The social organisation within the genus Formica is highly flexible with both inter- and intra-specific variation in queen number [15], [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptome Characterisation of the Ant Formica exsecta with New Insights into the Evolution of Desaturase Genes in Social Hymenoptera

et al. 2013

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BackgroundDespite the recent sequencing of seven ant genomes, no genomic data are available for the genus Formica, an important group for the study of eusocial traits. We sequenced the transcriptome of the ant Formica exsecta with the 454 FLX Titanium technology from a pooled sample of workers from 70 Finnish colonies.ResultsAbout 1,000,000 reads were obtained from a normalised cDNA library. We compared the assemblers MIRA3.0 and Newbler2.6 and showed that the latter performed better on this dataset due to a new option which is dedicated to improve contig formation in low depth portions of the assemblies. The 29,579 contigs represent 27 Mb. 50% showed similarity with known proteins and 25% could be assigned a category of gene ontology. We found more than 13,000 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms. The Δ9 desaturase gene family is an important multigene family involved in chemical communication in insects. We found six Δ9 desaturases in this Formica exsecta transcriptome dataset that were used to reconstruct a maximum-likelihood phylogeny of insect desaturases and to test for signatures of positive selection in this multigene family in ant lineages. We found differences with previous phylogenies of this gene family in ants, and found two clades potentially under positive selection.ConclusionThis first transcriptome reference sequence of Formica exsecta provided sequence and polymorphism data that will allow researchers working on Formica ants to develop studies to tackle the genetic basis of eusocial phenotypes. In addition, this study provided some general guidelines for de novo transcriptome assembly that should be useful for future transcriptome sequencing projects. Finally, we found potential signatures of positive selection in some clades of the Δ9 desaturase gene family in ants, which suggest the potential role of sequence divergence and adaptive evolution in shaping the large diversity of chemical cues in social insects.

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“…Although the F. rufa group has undergone a recent speciation (Goropashnaya et al , ), the species differ in some characteristics: F. polyctena comprises polygynous (having many queens) ants that build larger nests, whereas F. lugubris and F. rufa are usually monogynous (having one queen) and build smaller nests (Punttila & Kilpeläinen, ). Colony size of different ant species may influence number of workers present in the ant‐hills and thus affect the interactions between ants and pine weevils on the ground.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of red wood ant abundance on feeding damage by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis

Maňák

Björklund

Lenoir

et al. 2014

Agri and Forest Entomology

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1 Red wood ants (Formica rufa group) are the dominant ant species in European forests that can affect the abundance of other arthropods (e.g. herbivorous insects in tree canopies or beetles on the forest floor). 2 Notably, ants can prevent pine weevils (Hylobius abietis) from feeding on conifer seedlings supplied with food sources for ants. This is a potentially important observation because the weevil is a serious pest in forest regeneration areas. 3 We hypothesized that frequent encounters between red wood ants and pine weevils on the ground may decrease the weevils' feeding on conifer seedlings. To test this hypothesis, we compared feeding damage caused by pine weevils on spruce seedlings in areas with high and low abundance of red wood ants. 4 Despite a four-fold difference in the numbers of ants in pitfall trap samples, there were no significant differences between areas with high and low ant abundance in terms of feeding-scar areas, proportions of attacked seedlings or proportions of killed seedlings. 5 Thus, in contrast to previously documented deterrent effects on ground-dwelling beetles, high abundance of ants on the ground did not influence the feeding activity of pine weevils on the spruce seedlings. We conclude that the mechanisms underlying seedling protection by ants are probably mainly related to the ants' protection of food sources, whereas the frequency of encounters elsewhere has less effect on the weevils' feeding.

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Distribution of Mound-Building Ant Species (Formicaspp., Hymenoptera) in Finland: Preliminary Results of a National Survey

Cited by 61 publications

References 44 publications

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Transcriptome Characterisation of the Ant Formica exsecta with New Insights into the Evolution of Desaturase Genes in Social Hymenoptera

The effect of red wood ant abundance on feeding damage by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis

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