Micro-Environmental Factors Affecting Diel Patterns of Foraging in the Leaf-Cutting Ant Atta cephalotes (L.) (Formicidae: Attini)

Lewis, Theodore; Pollard, G. V.; Dibley, G. C.

doi:10.2307/3163

Cited by 44 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…However, occasional daytime foraging occurs during short periods of intense activity. These sporadic but quite evident bursts of diurnal foraging may be required because of nutritional or metabolical needs of leaf-cutting ants (Lewis et al, 1974). Thus, Neodohriniphora sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction in the foraging activity of the leaf‐cutting ant Atta sexdens caused by the phorid Neodohrniphora sp.

Bragança

Tonhasca

Lúcia

1998

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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Females of the parasitic phorid Neodohrniphora sp. were collected in the field and released singly inside an observation chamber placed between a laboratory colony of Atta sexdens (L.) and its foraging arena. The number and speed of loaded and unloaded ants returning to the nest, the weight of foragers and their loads, the number of leaf fragments abandoned by ants, and the number of small workers ‘hitchhiking’ on leaf fragments were measured before phorids were released, while they were in the observation chamber, and after they were removed. Relatively few ants were attacked by Neodohrniphora sp., but the presence of flies prompted outbound ants to return to the nest and caused a significant reduction on the number and mass of foragers. Additionally, the weight of leaf fragments transported by ants was reduced and the number of abandoned fragments increased in response to Neodohrniphora sp. Presence of the parasitoid caused no significant changes in the number of hitchhiking ants. The regular ants' traffic was resumed after phorids were removed, but foraging activity remained below normal for up to three hours. In the field A. sexdens forages mostly at night, but colonies undergo periods of diurnal foraging during which ants are subject to parasitism from several species of phorid flies. Considering that daytime foraging may be necessary for nutritional or metabolical needs, phorids may have a significant impact on their hosts by altering their foraging behavior regardless of the numerical values of parasitism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction in the foraging activity of the leaf‐cutting ant Atta sexdens caused by the phorid Neodohrniphora sp.

Bragança

Tonhasca

Lúcia

1998

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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“…When peaks are diurnal, virtually no noctural foraging occurs (this study ;Lutz 1929;Hodgson 1955;Lewis 1974a). Lewis et al (1974b)speculate that leaves collected during daylight hours may be of higher nutritive value, since many amino acid metabolites of photosynthesis disappear from leaves at night, although the value of these amino acids to the fungus garden has been called into question (Boyd and Martin 1975). The effects of subsisting only on nocturnally harvested leaves could be investigated using laboratory colonies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasitic flies (Diptera: Phoridae) influence foraging rhythms and caste division of labor in the leaf-cutter ant, Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Orr

1992

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

100

103

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Three lines of evidence, including interspecific comparisons, temporal division of foraging between size castes, and experimental manipulations, suggest that the diurnal parasitoid Neodohrniphora curvinervis (Diptera: Phoridae) influences both the caste sizes and numbers of leaf-cutter ants (Atta cephalotes) that leave their underground nests to collect leaves. At Parque Nacional Corcovado in Costa Rica, A. cephalotes was attacked by Neodohrniphora during the daytime, and foraged less during the day than at night; a closely related ant at the same site, A. colombica, had no phorid parasites and foraged exclusively during the day. Most daytime foragers of A. cephalotes were smaller than the lower size threshold for attack by Neodohrniphora, while nocturnal foragers, active when parasitoids were absent, were both larger than this threshold and within the energetically optimal size range for foraging. When I supplied artificial lighting to allow phorids to hunt at A. cephalotes colonies past dusk, ants foraged less than when light was provided but flies were removed. The influence of Neodohrniphora on the foraging activity of A. cephalotes may explain why investigations focusing on abiotic factors have largely failed to discover what drives this ant's daily foraging cycles, and suggests that forager sizes are influenced not only by energetic efficiency, but also by the threat of parasitism.

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“…Growth rates of tropical Attamyces fungi are optimized around 25°C; growth stagnates below 20°C, and prolonged exposure to temperatures below 10°C can be lethal to tropical Attamyces (12)(13)(14). Tropical leafcutter ants therefore construct fungal chambers that maintain gardens within a temperature window of 20 to 30°C, typical temperatures for tropical rainforest soils (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Moreover, leafcutter ants possess an antennal sensitivity to temperature gradients that is far more acute than in any other insect (20), and this sensitivity enables leafcutter workers to rapidly assess temperature gradients.…”

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confidence: 99%

Evolution of cold-tolerant fungal symbionts permits winter fungiculture by leafcutter ants at the northern frontier of a tropical ant–fungus symbiosis

Mueller

Mikheyev

Hong

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The obligate mutualism between leafcutter ants and their Attamyces fungi originated 8 to 12 million years ago in the tropics, but extends today also into temperate regions in South and North America. The northernmost leafcutter ant Atta texana sustains fungiculture during winter temperatures that would harm the coldsensitive Attamyces cultivars of tropical leafcutter ants. Cold-tolerance of Attamyces cultivars increases with winter harshness along a south-to-north temperature gradient across the range of A. texana, indicating selection for cold-tolerant Attamyces variants along the temperature cline. Ecological niche modeling corroborates winter temperature as a key range-limiting factor impeding northward expansion of A. texana. The northernmost A. texana populations are able to sustain fungiculture throughout winter because of their cold-adapted fungi and because of seasonal, vertical garden relocation (maintaining gardens deep in the ground in winter to protect them from extreme cold, then moving gardens to warmer, shallow depths in spring). Although the origin of leafcutter fungiculture was an evolutionary breakthrough that revolutionized the food niche of tropical fungus-growing ants, the original adaptations of this host-microbe symbiosis to tropical temperatures and the dependence on cold-sensitive fungal symbionts eventually constrained expansion into temperate habitats. Evolution of coldtolerant fungi within the symbiosis relaxed constraints on winter fungiculture at the northern frontier of the leafcutter ant distribution, thereby expanding the ecological niche of an obligate hostmicrobe symbiosis.ecological gradient | selection gradient | range limit | frontier mutualism

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Micro-Environmental Factors Affecting Diel Patterns of Foraging in the Leaf-Cutting Ant Atta cephalotes (L.) (Formicidae: Attini)

Cited by 44 publications

References 14 publications

Reduction in the foraging activity of the leaf‐cutting ant Atta sexdens caused by the phorid Neodohrniphora sp.

Reduction in the foraging activity of the leaf‐cutting ant Atta sexdens caused by the phorid Neodohrniphora sp.

Parasitic flies (Diptera: Phoridae) influence foraging rhythms and caste division of labor in the leaf-cutter ant, Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Evolution of cold-tolerant fungal symbionts permits winter fungiculture by leafcutter ants at the northern frontier of a tropical ant–fungus symbiosis

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