Agro-predation: usurpation of attine fungus gardens by Megalomyrmex ants |
| |
| Authors: | R M M Adams Ulrich G Mueller Ted R Schultz Beth Norden |
| |
| Institution: | (1) Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA e-mail: rmmadams@mail.utexas.edu Tel.: +1-512-4717619 Fax: +1-512-4713878, US;(2) Department of Entomology, MRC 188, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA, US |
| |
| Abstract: | A new ant species of Megalomyrmex conducts mass raids to usurp gardens of the fungus-growing ant Cyphomyrmex longiscapus, then lives in the gardens and consumes the cultivated fungus. Unlike attine ants, however, Megalomyrmex sp. does not forage for substrate to manure the gardens; therefore, when gardens become depleted, Megalomyrmex sp. must locate and usurp new gardens. Megalomyrmex sp. workers feed their larvae with attine brood, but only after removing the fungal mycelium that covers the attine larval integument,
suggesting that this fungal coat may provide partial protection against other predators. Unlike other known Megalomyrmex species, which coexist as social parasites in attine colonies, Megalomyrmex sp. expels its attine hosts during the garden raids. Megalomyrmex sp. thus maintains a unique agro-predatory lifestyle that is described here for the first time.
Received: 18 August 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 1 November 2000 |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
