Mandible strike: The lethal weapon of Odontomachus opaciventris against small prey

Mora, Aldo De la; Pérez‐Lachaud, Gabriela; Lachaud, Jean‐Paul

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2008.01.011

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…The ant genus Odontomachus have long and powerful mandible so-called trap-jaw that functions as a weapon when hunting (De la Mora et al, 2008). The trap-jaw ant capture a prey with closing the mandible extremely fast (S. 1) (Gronenberg, 1996a) (Just and Gronenberg, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serotonergic control in initiating defensive responses to unexpected tactile stimuli in the trap-jaw antOdontomachus kuroiwae

Aonuma

2020

Preprint

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A decision to express a defensive response or an escape response to a potential threat is crucial for insects to survive. This study investigated an aminergic mechanism underlying defensive responses to unexpected touch in an ant that has powerful mandibles, the so-called trap-jaw. The mandibles close extremely quickly and are used as a weapon during hunting. Tactile stimulation to the abdomen elicited quick forward movements in a “dart escape” in 90% of the ants in a colony. Less than 10% of the ants responded with a quick “defensive turn” towards the source of stimulation. To reveal the neuronal control mechanisms underlying this defensive behavior, the effects of brain biogenic amines on the responses to tactile stimulus were investigated. The levels of octopamine (OA), dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5HT) in the brain were significantly elevated in ants that responded with a defensive turn to the unexpected stimulus compared to ants that responded with a dart escape. Oral administration of DA and 5HT demonstrated that both amines contributed to the initiation of a defensive response to the stimulus. Oral administration of L-DOPA weakly affected the initiation of the defensive turn, while 5HTP strongly affected the initiation of defensive behavior. Oral administration of an antagonist of 5HT, ketanserin, abolished the effect of 5HTP. These results indicate that endogenous 5HT in the brain has a key role to play in modulating the initiation of defensive behavior in the trap-jaw ant.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serotonergic control in initiating defensive responses to unexpected tactile stimuli in the trap-jaw antOdontomachus kuroiwae

Aonuma

2020

Preprint

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“…Across the clade, there is considerable variation in head and mandible morphology, and body mass spans two orders of magnitude (Larabee, unpublished data). Like other trap-jaw ants, they are active predators (De La Mora et al, 2008;Dejean and Bashingwa, 1985), but they also have been observed tending hemipterans, collecting seeds, and scavenging (Ehmer and Hölldobler, 1995;Evans and Leston, 1971). In addition to using their rapid mandible strikes during predatory interactions, some species of Odontomachus also use their strikes for defense by "bouncing" intruders away from nest entrances (Carlin and Gladstein, 1989), and for escape by striking the substrate and jumping away from predators (Spagna et al, 2009;Larabee and Suarez, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular phylogenetics and diversification of trap-jaw ants in the genera Anochetus and Odontomachus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Larabee

Fisher

Schmidt

et al. 2016

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

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Ants in the genera Anochetus and Odontomachus belong to one of the largest clades in the subfamily Ponerinae, and are one of four lineages of ants possessing spring-loaded "trap-jaws." Here we present results from the first global species-level molecular phylogenetic analysis of these trap-jaw ants, reconstructed from one mitochondrial, one ribosomal RNA, and three nuclear protein-coding genes. Bayesian and likelihood analyses strongly support reciprocal monophyly for the genera Anochetus and Odontomachus. Additionally, we found strong support for seven trap-jaw ant clades (four in Anochetus and three in Odontomachus) mostly concordant with geographic distribution. Ambiguity remains concerning the closest living non-trap-jaw ant relative of the Anochetus+Odontomachus clade, but Bayes factor hypothesis testing strongly suggests that trap-jaw ants evolved from a short mandible ancestor. Ponerine trap-jaw ants originated in the early Eocene (52.5Mya) in either South America or Southeast Asia, where they have radiated rapidly in the last 30million years, and subsequently dispersed multiple times to Africa and Australia. These results will guide future taxonomic work on the group and act as a phylogenetic framework to study the macroevolution of extreme ant mouthpart specialization.

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“…This strategy is utilized by most of the behaviourally dominant species, most probably because initiating a fight can increase the likelihood of winning a contest (Mcauley et al, 1998;Tsutsui et al, 2003;Tanner & Adler, 2009). The seconds following a contact are crucial-if the subordinate worker decides to flee-then reaction time and speed within the first few seconds of the interaction are vital in terms of survival (De la Mora et al, 2008). An attacking individual needs time during physical contact to find a suitable place to bite the opponent.…”

Section: Speed As Results Of Co-occurrencementioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the speed of ants as a result of aggressive interactions

Ślipiński

Żmihorski

2016

Insect Science

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Subordinate ant species utilize different tactics to reduce competition with the stronger, larger and more aggressive individuals of a dominant species. In our experimental study, we assessed the behavioral response of individual workers of 4 subordinate ant species during their co-occurrence with workers of a single dominant species. Contrary to most classical experiments focused on aggressive interactions, we assessed workers' speed as a crucial factor in the outcome of co-occurrence. Generally, there was a large intraspecific variation in the speed of the studied species-each had slow and fast individuals. Workers of all studied species moved faster just after interaction, suggesting that contact between 2 hostile workers is a stressful stimulus, generating a behavioral reaction of increasing speed. Also, the number of aggressive contacts experienced by a given individual positively affected its speed. Moreover, workers which were fast when exploring territory were also fast after interspecific interactions. The duration of aggression was significantly reduced by the speed and body size of a subordinate species worker-the more quickly a worker reacted and bigger it was, the shorter was the time of cumulative aggression. To our knowledge, this is the first study of this type to be conducted on ants and we conclude that speed is an overlooked and important characteristic of species and also individuals, therefore it should be considered as a driver of patterns of co-occurrence in ant assemblages.

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Mandible strike: The lethal weapon of Odontomachus opaciventris against small prey

Cited by 25 publications

References 104 publications

Serotonergic control in initiating defensive responses to unexpected tactile stimuli in the trap-jaw antOdontomachus kuroiwae

Serotonergic control in initiating defensive responses to unexpected tactile stimuli in the trap-jaw antOdontomachus kuroiwae

Molecular phylogenetics and diversification of trap-jaw ants in the genera Anochetus and Odontomachus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Changes in the speed of ants as a result of aggressive interactions

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