The Effect of Foraging Army Ants on Leaf-Litter Arthropods

Gw, Otis; Sant’Ana, Carlos Eduardo Ramos de; Dl, Crawford; Ml, Higgins

doi:10.2307/2388363

Cited by 48 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We could not determine whether the three larvae whose head width was 0.184 mm were large 1 st instar or small 2 nd instar larvae. The 8 th day seemed to be a transition day, with 24 larvae ( , 1983;Otis et al, 1986;Hirosawa et al, 2000;Weissflog et al, 2000) were studied. Their nomadic phase (NP) is characterised by raids triggered to feed developing larvae.…”

Section: Number Of Larval Instarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reproductive cycle of thelytokous colonies of Cerapachys biroi Forel (Formicidae, Cerapachyinae)

Ravary¹,

Jaisson²

2002

Insectes Sociaux

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The reproductive cycle of thelytokous colonies of Cerapachys biroi was investigated in laboratory conditions. It included several stages, the duration of which was assessed by direct observation on experimental nests set up by fission of natural, queenless, colonies. The results show that two phases of adult activity alternated while cohorts of brood developed synchronously. During the statary phase, virgin workers laid diploid eggs simultaneously but no foraging activity was observed until the following phase which began after the callow workers of the previous brood cohort emerged and the eggs hatched. During this foraging phase, workers explored intensively for food while larvae matured synchronously. Biometrical measures allowed to determine that three larval instars occurred in this species. While larvae started pupation, workers stopped to forage and the next statary phase took place, during which a new cohort of eggs was laid and pupae matured. This repeated phasic reproductive cycle where adult activity and development of the brood are synchronised reminds that of true army ants (subfamily Ecitoninae), which brings new arguments in favour of a filiation between both groups.

show abstract

Section: Number Of Larval Instarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reproductive cycle of thelytokous colonies of Cerapachys biroi Forel (Formicidae, Cerapachyinae)

Ravary¹,

Jaisson²

2002

Insectes Sociaux

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many birds, lizards and invertebrates associate with this ant and more than 50 species of ant-birds are obligate trail followers (Willis 1967;Ray & Andrews 1980). The foraging activities of this ant also create a patchwork of areas in different stages of ecological succession (Franks 1982;Franks & Bossert 1983;Otis et al 1986).…”

Section: Ecological Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Analysis and the Governance of Natural Resources

McGlade

1999

Advanced Ecological Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionDespite the growing hegemony of the environment, many of the earth's living resources are in decline or under serious threat of collapse. Such changes are occurring everywhere as a result of human population growth, alterations to the biosphere, via long-term trends in the climate, and increased levels of exploitation.Given that it is impractical to control the dynamics of most natural ecosystems, the current emphasis in many resource management systems on determinism, stability and optimization is clearly inappropriate. Instead, resource governance requires a new theoretical basis upon which to create management tools that will mitigate against the effects of change and cope with increasing levels of conflict over use demands.In previous chapters, new concepts and theoretical approaches have been presented to address the impacts of stochasticity, biological variation and external forcing functions on resource exploitation and ecosystem functioning. These have included different types of spatial models, individualbased models, pairwise correlations, trophic interactions, life-history dynamics and ecological economics. In this chapter I explore how these and other approaches can be integrated over a range of physical, biological and socioeconomic scales to respond to the problems of resource governance that now face us.System description is still one of the least resolved aspects of ecology. There are numerous approaches available, each using different criteria and operating over different space and time scales. They include biogeography, habitat delimitation, population and metapopulation dynamics, trophodynamics, etc. Once an approach and numeraire (e.g. numbers of species, units of carbon flow between trophic levels, etc.) has been adopted, the boundaries of an ecosystem need to be determined and the groupings within it established. But the problem is that ecosystems, by their very nature, are continuously changing, and the elements within them shifting between groups (e.g. age classes). Fuzzy logic (Zadeh 1965) provides a tool to address this problem and later in the chapter I explore its use and suggest why it is

show abstract

“…Army ants play a key role in the dynamics of tropical forests because they regulate the populations of many other social hymenopterans (Franks 1982a, b, Gotwald 1995; locally impact the leaf-litter arthropod community both by direct predation and by facilitating parasitism by a range of insects that attend swarms (Franks 1982b, Otis et al 1986); and support the community of specialist birds that obtain most of their food by capturing arthropods and small vertebrates attempting to escape from ant swarms (Willis and Oniki 1978 Ant-following birds and parasitoids regularly attend only the few army ants in the Ecitoninae tribe that develop swarm raids when foraging (other species have less conspicuous foraging behavior and either lack attendants or attract them only sporadically). Colonies of the predominant swarm raider, Eciton burchellii (formerly E. burchelli; see Bolton 1995), can reach sizes of 1.5 ϫ 10 6 ants and may scour Ͼ1000 m 2 of forest floor per day (Schneirla 1971, Franks 1982a, Gotwald 1995.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antbirds Parasitize Foraging Army Ants

Wrege

Wikelski

Mandel

et al. 2005

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In the tropical forests of Central and South America, army ants of the Ecitonini tribe, and the numerous animals that follow them through the understory, share a complex relationship that has far-reaching effects on population dynamics and community structure. Although considerable study has been made of various participants in this relationship, no research has explicitly examined the nature of the interaction between the ants and the most important group of followers, the ant-following birds. Here we show, through use of exclusion experiments, that ant-following birds are parasites on Eciton burchellii, significantly reducing the ants' success rate in capturing prey. This has important implications for our interpretation of ant behaviors during swarm-raiding, competitive interactions among the ant-following birds, and possibly also the relative abundance of those social hymenopterans that are typically preyed upon by army ants.

show abstract

The Effect of Foraging Army Ants on Leaf-Litter Arthropods

Cited by 48 publications

References 0 publications

The reproductive cycle of thelytokous colonies of Cerapachys biroi Forel (Formicidae, Cerapachyinae)

The reproductive cycle of thelytokous colonies of Cerapachys biroi Forel (Formicidae, Cerapachyinae)

Ecosystem Analysis and the Governance of Natural Resources

Antbirds Parasitize Foraging Army Ants

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About