Search results for "Formicidae"
showing 10 items of 16 documents
Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles differ between ant body parts: implications for communication and our understanding of CHC diffusion.
2020
Abstract Insect cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) serve as communication signals and protect against desiccation. They form complex blends of up to 150 different compounds. Due to differences in molecular packing, CHC classes differ in melting point. Communication is especially important in social insects like ants, which use CHCs to communicate within the colony and to recognize nestmates. Nestmate recognition models often assume a homogenous colony odor, where CHCs are collected, mixed, and redistributed in the postpharyngeal gland (PPG). Via diffusion, recognition cues should evenly spread over the body surface. Hence, CHC composition should be similar across body parts and in the PPG. To te…
The effects of drainage and restoration of pine mires on habitat structure, vegetation and ants
2016
Habitat loss and degradation are the main threats to biodiversity worldwide. For example, nearly 80% of peatlands in southern Finland have been drained. There is thus a need to safeguard the remaining pristine mires and to restore degraded ones. Ants play a pivotal role in many ecosystems and like many keystone plant species, shape ecosystem conditions for other biota. The effects of mire restoration and subsequent vegetation succession on ants, however, are poorly understood. We inventoried tree stands, vegetation, water-table level, and ants (with pitfall traps) in nine mires in southern Finland to explore differences in habitats, vegetation and ant assemblages among pristine, drained (30…
Succession in ant communities (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in deciduous forest clear-cuts - an Eastern European case study
2017
Clear-cutting, the main method of harvesting in many forests in the world, causes a series of dramatic environmental changes to the forest habitat and removes habitat resources for arboreal and epigeal species. It results in considerable changes in the composition of both plant and animal communities. Ants have many critical roles in the maintenance and functioning of forest ecosystems. Therefore, the response of ants to clear-cutting and the time it takes for an ant community to recover after clear-cutting are important indicators of the effect of this harvesting technique on the forest ecosystem. We investigated ground-dwelling ant communities during secondary succession of deciduous fore…
Ecological response hides behind the species abundance distribution : Community response to low-intensity disturbance in managed grasslands
2017
Land-use and management are disturbance factors that have diverse effects on community composition and structure. In traditional rural grasslands, such as meadows and pastures, low-intensity management is maintained to enhance biodiversity. Maintenance of road verges, in turn, creates habitat, which may complement traditional rural grasslands. To evaluate the effect of low-intensity disturbance on insect communities, we characterized species abundance distributions (SAD) for Carabidae, Formicidae, and Heteroptera in three grassland types, which differed in management: meadows, pastures, and road verges. The shape of SAD was estimated with three parameters: abundance decay rate, dominance, a…
Temperature differences associated with colour do not determine where the acorn ant Temnothorax crassispinus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) chooses to nest
2021
Temperature is an important factor for invertebrates. Social insects build nests, which along with their ability to thermoregulate, provide shelter from extreme temperatures. However, for many species of ants the most common method of controlling the temperature inside a nest is to choose a suitable nest site. During a fi eld experiment, the choice of nest site by the acorn ant Temnothorax crassispinus, a species which lives in coniferous and mixed forests, was studied. It typically occupies ephemeral nest sites and can move to a new nest site several times in one season. It was predicted that in early spring, dark coloured nest sites would be warmer and thus more frequently occupied by ant…
Three endemic Aphaenogaster from the Siculo-Maltese archipelago and the Italian Peninsula: part of a hitherto unrecognized species group from the Mag…
2019
Abstract More than 100 years ago, the Italian myrmecologist Carlo Emery described two endemic Sicilian ants: Aphaenogaster sicula Emery, 1908, which he originally considered a subspecies of A. crocea André, 1881, and A. fiorii Emery, 1915 stat. nov., which he believed was a subspecies of A. gibbosa (Latreille, 1798). Males of the two species and the queen of A. fiorii were never described. The scarcity of information contained in the original description led to several misunderstandings by subsequent authors: for example, A. sicula was later elevated to species-rank on the basis of misidentified material of A. fiorii stat. nov. We redescribe the two species, adding the descriptions of their…
The arthropod community of boreal Norway spruce forests responds variably to stump harvesting
2016
Forest fuel harvesting increases the need to collect not just logging residues but also tree stumps from harvested stands. This biomass removal has raised concern over forest biodiversity. Here, the effects of stump harvesting on spiders, ants, harvestmen, ground beetles and epiedaphic springtails occupying boreal Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest floor were studied two and five years after harvesting by comparing pitfall trap samples from clear-cut sites with and without subsequent stump harvesting and from unharvested mature forests in central Finland. At harvested sites, traps were placed both on intact and exposed mineral soil surface. Open-habitat and generalist ground beetles benefit…
Immune response affects ant trophallactic behaviour.
2008
5 pages; International audience; Sociality is associated with many benefits that have favoured its evolution in social insects. However, sociability also presents disadvantages like crowding of large numbers of individuals, which may favour the spread of infections within colonies. Adaptations allowing social insects to prevent and/or control pathogen infections range from behavioural responses to physiological ones including their immune systems. In a state of infection, social interactions with nestmates should be altered in a way which might prevent its spreading. We simulated a microbial infection in workers of the ant Camponotus fellah by the administration of peptidoglycan (PGN) and t…
Does an ant-dispersed plant, Viola reichenbachiana, suffer from reduced seed dispersal under inundation disturbances?
2008
Many plant species use ants as seed dispersers. This dispersal mode is considered to be susceptible to disturbances, but the effect of natural, small-scale disturbances is still unknown. We investigated how small-scale disturbances due to inundation affect seed dispersal in Viola reichenbachiana, a dominant myrmecochorous herb in riparian forests. Inundation disturbances were high in depressions and low on hillocks of the forest floor. We found that V reichenbachiana was similarly abundant at highly and less disturbed sites, contrary to other, non ant-dispersed species. We also found that the motivation of ants to disperse seeds was higher at highly disturbed sites. Nevertheless, the number…
Data from: Coping with the climate: cuticular hydrocarbon acclimation of ants under constant and fluctuating conditions
2018
Terrestrial arthropods achieve waterproofing by a layer of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). At the same time, CHCs also serve as communication signals. To maintain waterproofing under different climate conditions, insects adjust the chemical composition of their CHC layer, but this may affect the communication via CHC. The detailed acclimatory changes of CHCs and how these influence their physical properties are still unknown. Here, we studied acclimation in two closely related ant species with distinct CHC profiles, Myrmica rubra and Myrmica ruginodis, in response to constant or fluctuating temperature and humidity regimes. We measured how acclimation affected CHC composition and viscosity, …