Content uploaded by William P. Mackay
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by William P. Mackay on Oct 16, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
The Systematics and Biology of the New World Thief Ants of the Genus Solenopsis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
... Pitfall trap contents were sorted to family by VCNP staff. Ant specimens were further sorted to species using dissecting microscopes and identified using established taxonomic keys [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. Voucher specimens were pointed, labeled, and pinned for archiving. ...
High-severity wildfires create heterogeneous patterns of vegetation across burned landscapes. While these spatial patterns are well-documented, less is known about the short- and long-term effects of large-scale high-severity wildfires on insect community assemblages and dynamics. Ants are bottom-up indicators of ecosystem health and function that are sensitive to disturbance and fill a variety of roles in their ecosystems, including altering soil chemistry, dispersing seeds, and serving as a key food resource for many species, including the federally endangered Jemez Mountain salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus). We examined the post-fire effects of the 2011 Las Conchas Wildfire on ant communities in the Valles Caldera National Preserve (Sandoval County, New Mexico, USA). We collected ants via pitfall traps in replicated burned and unburned sites across three habitats: ponderosa pine forests, mixed-conifer forests, and montane grassland. We analyzed trends in species richness, abundance, recruitment, loss, turnover, and composition over five sequential years of post-fire succession (2011–2015). Ant foraging assemblage was influenced by burn presence, season of sampling, and macrohabitat. We also found strong seasonal trends and decreases over time since fire in ant species richness and ant abundance. However, habitat and seasonal effects may be a stronger predictor of ant species richness than the presence of fire or post-fire successional patterns.
... For example, several species of the myrmicine genus Solenopsis have tiny workers that dig smalldiameter galleries connecting their nest to that of the targeted ants belonging to several subfamilies. During encounters, the Solenopsis workers avoid contact and discretely rob brood from the colonies they infiltrate (Pacheco & Mackay, 2013). In the Neotropics, some Megalomyrmex, also belonging to the tribe Solenopsidini, are thief ants that use chemical insignificance, while their alkaloid venom triggers submissive behavior in the host workers (Neupert et al., 2018). ...
In this review, we show that predatory ants have a wide range of foraging behavior, something expected given their phylogenetic distance and the great variation in their colony size, life histories, and nesting habitats as well as prey diversity. Most ants are central-place foragers that detect prey using vision and olfaction. Ground-dwelling species can forage solitarily, the ancestral form, but generally recruit nestmates to retrieve large prey or a group of prey. Typically, ants are omnivorous, but some species are strict predators preying on detritivorous invertebrates or arthropod eggs, while those specialized on termites or other ants often have scouts that localize their target and then trigger a raid. They can use compounds that ease this task, including chemical insignificance, mimicry, and venoms triggering submissive behavior. Army ants include 8 Dorylinae and some species from other subfamilies, all having wingless queens and forming raids. Dorylinae from the Old World migrate irregularly to new nesting sites. The foraging of most New World species that prey on the brood of other ants is regulated by their biological cycle that alternates between a "nomadic phase" when the colony relocates between different places and a "stationary phase" when the colony stays in a bivouac constituting a central place. Among arboreal ants, dominant species forage in groups, detecting prey visually, but can use vibrations, particularly when associated with myrmecophytes. Some species of the genera Allomerus and Azteca use fungi to build a gallery-shaped trap with small holes under which they hide to ambush prey.
... , and a long-unburned sand pine scrub in Highlands County (Pacheco and Mackay 2013). In the KSA, S. abdita was found coexisting with numerous ant species including N. jaegerskioeldi (Mayr), Tapinoma simrothi Krausse, Brachymyrmex cordemoyi Forel, M. exiguum Forel and Tetramorium caldarium (Roger) . ...
We present the first faunal analysis of the ants (Formicidae) of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Bahrain), an island nation in the Arabian Gulf. We document a total of 35 ant species based on published, unpublished and new specimen records, including 26 presumed native species and nine non-native tramp species. The native fauna was predominantly of Palaearctic origin, with a few Afrotropical species. A new species of the genus Lepisiota Santschi, 1926, L. bahrainensis sp. n., is described and illustrated based on the worker caste. Habitat suitability modelling of the ant fauna of Bahrain was generated using a total of 157 recorded points against the panel of 19 bioclimatic factors. We used Maxent software to generate the final map which indicates a significantly high and excellent habitat suitability of species on the northern part of the country and high suitability on the eastern coasts. Our results show that the mean temperature of the driest season is the most effective parameter in modelling the distribution, and we present interpretations of the very low habitat suitability in the extremely arid desert in the southern regions of the main island. Finally, we present ecological and biological remarks and distribution maps for each species.
... They were conducted through the direct observation of specimens under a stereoscopic microscope and comparison with specimens deposited at the MZSP. Some species were identified using published identification keys for genera, as follows: Acromyrmex Mayr, 1865(Forti et al. 2006Forti et al. 2022); Amoimyrmex Cristiano, Cardoso & Sandoval-Gómez, 2020(Cristiano et al. 2020; Apterostigma Mayr, 1865(Lattke 1997; Atta Fabricius, 1804 (Gonçalves 1942); Azteca Forel, 1878 (Longino 2007); Brachymyrmex Mayr, 1868(Ortiz-Sepulveda et al. 2019; Cephalotes Latreille, 1802 (Oliveira et al. 2021); Crematogaster Lund, 1831(Longino 2003; Dinoponera Roger, 1861 (Dias & Lattke 2021); Dorymyrmex Mayr, 1866(Cuezzo et al. 2011; Gnamptogenys Roger, 1863and Holcoponera Cameron, 1891(Camacho et al. 2022; Hylomyrma Forel, 1912; Linepithema Mayr, 1866(Wild 2007; Neoponera Emery, 1901(Fernandes et al. 2014Troya & Lattke 2022); Nylanderia Emery, 1906(Kallal & Lapolla 2012; Odontomachus Latreille, 1804 (França 2021); Oxyepoecus Santschi, 1926b(Albuquerque & Brandão 2004; Pheidole group dilligens Westwood, 1839(Casadei-Ferreira et al. 2020; Pheidole groups biconstricta, fallax, flavens, punctatissima and tristis (Wilson 2003); Pogonomyrmex Mayr, 1868(Johnson 2015; Solenopsis Westwood, 1840 (Trager 1991;Pacheco & Mackay 2013;Pitts et al. 2018); and Wasmannia Forel, 1893 (Cuezzo et al. 2015). The classification of urban ants was based on Loeck & Silva (1999), Campos-Farinha et al. (2002) and Zarzuela et al. (2002). ...
Biological collections are important repositories of biodiversity, as they include various types of data potentially useful to different areas of science and can contribute to the establishment of biodiversity conservation policies. For a long time, scientific collections were considered only as physical databases; in this context Harold G. Fowler (1950–2018) built an ant collection at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, campus Rio Claro (São Paulo state, Brazil), over the course of a 34-year career, comprising around 20,000 ant specimens. Most specimens came from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, but many others came from distinct locations in Brazil and abroad. After his death, the collection was left without the necessary curatorial care for a period of time, which required a project to be conceived for its recovery and conservation, with the goal of incorporating it to the Zoology Museum of the University of São Paulo (MZSP). In addition to applying modern technical curation protocols, other activities such as checking, material identification and digitization of the information contained on the sample labels were carried out, forming an accurate database. This process enabled the identification of new distribution records and the discovery of possible undescribed species and unpublished natural history data. After validating this information, we counted 524 valid species and 201 morphospecies belonging to 105 genera and 10 subfamilies. In addition, we integrated technical curation activities with scientific outreach to draw the general public’s attention to the importance of biological collections, thus fostering interest in science, biodiversity and nature conservation. Our work highlights the importance of preserving the areas sampled by Fowler’s research group. The preservation of vouchers using curatorial practices reinforces the role of scientific collections as important tools for the study, understanding and preservation of biodiversity.
... La mayoría de las colonias se encuentran en el suelo y anidan ocasionalmente sin orificio de entrada a menos que realicen vuelos nupciales. Se descubren debajo de piedras, pero a menudo se las encuentra en nidos de otras especies de hormigas a las cuales les roban la comida y sus crías (Pacheco & Mackay, 2013). Las hormigas de fuego (fire ants) están presentes en todas las regiones tropicales del mundo, aunque el Neotrópico alberga el mayor número. ...
... Ants collected from pitfall traps were stored in 70% ethanol and taken to the laboratory for identification. Ants were identified to the genus level using taxonomic keys (Wheeler 1913, Francoeur 1973, Baroni Urbani 1978, Mackay 2000, Fernández 2007, Jimenez et al. 2008, Longino 2009, Branstetter 2012, Cuezzo and Guerrero 2012, Kallal and LaPolla 2012, Pacheco et al. 2013, Stockan et al. 2016, Williams and LaPolla 2016, Morgan and Mackay 2017. Specimens were sent to the following specialists for their identification: L. Quiroz, J. E. Valenzuela, G. R. Pérez-Toledo (Instituto de Ecología, A.C.) and W. Mackay (University of Texas, Laboratory for Environmental Biology Centennial Museum). ...
Biodiversity is declining at various scales due to habitat simplification. Nevertheless, there is scarce information on how the biotic and abiotic changes linked to simplification affect several diversity dimensions, such as taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities. This study investigated whether transforming natural oak forests into induced grasslands affected species diversity, functional group structure, and phylogenetic diversity of ant assemblages inhabiting a temperate forest in central Mexico. We placed over 1000 pitfall traps in five sampling events covering a ten‐year period. We used Hill numbers to evaluate species diversity differences between vegetation types and patterns over time. Ant species were classified into stress‐related functional groups, which were analyzed for their association with vegetation types and changes to their proportional abundance over time. We calculated the standardized effect size of the mean nearest taxon distance to quantify the evolutionary history and test for non‐random patterns within vegetation types and sampling years. Species richness did not differ between vegetation types, yet grasslands showed greater diversity for the q = 1 and q = 2 orders. , We also found three ant species as bioindicators for each type of vegetation. Regarding functional structure, cold climate specialists were associated with oak forests. In contrast, generalist species were predominant in induced grasslands. Higher phylogenetic diversity with an overdispersed structure was associated with oak forest, whereas lower phylogenetic diversity and a clustered pattern were found in induced grassland. These results indicate that habitat simplification may not affect the number of ant species, but rather increases their relative abundance and reorganizes the functional and phylogenetic structure in the ecosystem, particularly shifting towards the dominance of evolutionary closely related species and broad‐stress‐tolerant groups. These results highlight the importance of integrating further dimensions of diversity to properly evaluate the reassembly dynamics after habitat simplification, and understand the mechanisms driving this biodiversity loss.
Ants mediate ecosystem services that can modulate crop performance and overall agroecosystem functioning. Our study investigated how the activity of Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) influences soil chemical properties, soil silicon pools, and soil phytoliths. We hypothesized Solenopsis invicta Buren activity would increase the macronutrient content, available silicon for plants (PASi), and amorphous silicon (ASi) in nest soils, which is related to changes in the phytolith assemblage. This study was conducted on agricultural soil under organic management, covering an area of approximately 70 ha in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Thirty paired soil and nest samples were collected at a depth of 0.20 m and analyzed to obtain values for soil macronutrients and silicon pools (PASi and ASi) and to perform phytolithic analyses. Phytolith extraction from the samples was undertaken using a protocol that involved removed coatings, clay fractions, and iron oxides through density separation, followed by the determination of the phytolith concentration and identification of a minimum of 200 phytoliths per sample using a Zeiss Axioskop 40 optical microscope. Results indicated an increase in total organic carbon (TOC), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) levels and in all forms of Si studied. Ants also affected phytolith assemblages, and there was an increase in morphotypes associated with dicotyledonous plants in the nest soil. We assumed these results were derived from bioturbation promoted by ants, predatory activity, and the interaction of some prey and phytoliths, leading to biologically enhanced weathering. By uncovering and describing this novel role for a widely distributed and highly abundant organism in Neotropical soils, we propose that these alterations, particularly in the biogeochemical cycle of silicon, should be added to the list of ecosystem services provided by ants. This study presents the first evidence of alterations in silicon pools and phytolith assemblages caused by the action of ants.
In this guide we present taxonomic keys for the 12 subfamilies and 117 genera of ants known to occur in Brazil, along with an illustrated glossary of technical terms. The identification keys presented here are accompanied by high-resolution photographs of representative specimens for each taxon covered, including details that aid in the understanding of complex characters. Additionally, we provide comparative information for each genus, including diagnostic morphological traits, predominant habitat occurrence, nesting and foraging strata, collection frequency, and reproductive strategy. We also provide a synopsis of the taxonomic status of each genus, including the number of known species in Brazil in comparison to their global distribution, as well as the occurrence of the ant genera across biomes and the most recent study including taxonomic tools for species identification. The main objective of this guide is to facilitate the accurate identification of ants in Brazil, providing a systematic and practical approach in accessible language for researchers, students, and entomology enthusiasts. We hope to contribute to the advancement of taxonomic, ecological, and applied knowledge of Brazilian ants, as well as provide a tool for diversity studies and environmental education, contributing to the understanding and preservation of ants in the country with the highest biodiversity on the planet.
In mosaic landscapes, environmental heterogeneity has been pointed out as an outstanding driver of emergent biodiversity patterns. Whether environmental heterogeneity elicits an increasing, decreasing or hump-shaped response of biodiversity depends on species, scale and type of agricultural land use and management. In this study, we analyzed ground-dwelling ant diversity in agroecosystems of Southern Dry Chaco (SDC) at local and landscape scales. We carried out the study along a gradient of agriculture intensification, taking into account five land-use and land-cover (LULC) classes: fallow lands, secondary forests, pastures, woody crops and herbaceous crops. We analyzed ant species richness and community composition in relation to local environmental heterogeneity as well as to landscape compositional heterogeneity. Changes in ant community composition were mainly related to species replacement along the LULC gradient, with fallow lands and secondary forests harboring the highest ant species richness. Biotic heterogeneity, promoted by vegetation, explained the pattern of ant diversity at local scale, whereas dissimilarity between neighboring LULC types explained ant species richness at landscape scale. Our findings highlight the importance of promoting natural and semi-natural vegetation as well as managing landscape compositional structure to enhance ant diversity in agroecosystems of the SDC.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.