2016
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0625
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Abstract: Adequate waste management is vital for the success of social life, because waste accumulation increases sanitary risks in dense societies. We explored why different leaf-cutting ants (LCA) species locate their waste in internal nest chambers or external piles, including ecological context and accounting for phylogenetic relations. We propose that waste location depends on whether the environmental conditions enhance or reduce the risk of infection. We obtained the geographical range, habitat and refuse locatio… Show more

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Cited by 37 publications
(31 citation statements)
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“…The degradation of such recalcitrant plant material by the mutualist fungus may be limited (Aylward et al 2013) and may explain the conspicuous deposition of external refuse during the beginning of the rainy season, as we have observed not only for Atta opaciceps, but also for the two other species occurring in Catimbau A. laevigata and A. sexdens both well known so far as species with internal refuse dumps in other ecosystems (Leal et al 2014). This represents an additional explanation to the hypothesis proposing external refuse dumps as less costly than internal refuse chambers, but it is only possible in pathogen-free environments such as the semiarid zones (Farji-Brener et al 2016).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 94%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…The degradation of such recalcitrant plant material by the mutualist fungus may be limited (Aylward et al 2013) and may explain the conspicuous deposition of external refuse during the beginning of the rainy season, as we have observed not only for Atta opaciceps, but also for the two other species occurring in Catimbau A. laevigata and A. sexdens both well known so far as species with internal refuse dumps in other ecosystems (Leal et al 2014). This represents an additional explanation to the hypothesis proposing external refuse dumps as less costly than internal refuse chambers, but it is only possible in pathogen-free environments such as the semiarid zones (Farji-Brener et al 2016).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 94%
“…This represents an additional explanation to the hypothesis proposing external refuse dumps as less costly than internal refuse chambers, but it is only possible in pathogen‐free environments such as the semiarid zones (Farji‐Brener et al . ).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 97%
“…Other Acromyrmex and Atta species form refuse piles that can be located both aboveground (e.g. A. mexicana, many Acromyrmex) or belowground (common species A. cephalotes and A. sexdens) and are widely distributed within the latitudinal extents of Neotropical forests, from the southern USA to Argentina [13]. Overall colony density is also 50-150% greater when considering multiple co-occurring Atta species compared with A. colombica alone (electronic supplementary material, table S1).…”
Section: (B) Local N 2 O Emissions and Potential For Broader Regionalmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…A growing number of studies show that collective behavior in ants is related to environmental conditions. Species differences in behavior, such as foraging trail networks (87) and other foraging behavior (80), the location of waste heaps (37), task flexibility (7), and defensive behavior (43), all reflect ecological factors such as climate, resource distribution, risk of infection, or desiccation risk. Species differences in collective behavior also reflect differences in physiology related to ecological conditions; an example is desiccation resistance (14).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%