| Acropyga epedana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Acropyga epedana worker | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Formicinae |
| Genus: | Acropyga |
| Species: | A. epedana |
| Binomial name | |
| Acropyga epedana Roger, 1862 | |
Acropyga epedana is an ant in the subfamily Formicinae. It lives permanently underground in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona and forms a mutualistic association with the mealybug Rhizoecus colombiensis .
Acropyga epedana is a tiny pale golden-brown ant with a few erect hairs but many dense appressed hairs. The reproductives have normal compound eyes but the workers have tiny eyes and avoid exposure to light. These ants are very similar in appearance to Acropyga goeldii and Acropyga palaga and may be a northern population of A. goeldi. However, there are differences in the extensions to the penis valves that make it likely that the three are in fact separate species. The head of Acropyga epedana is smaller than that of the other two species. The total length of a worker is 1.75 mm (0.07 in). [1]
Acropyga epedana is found in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona at elevations of between 1,050 and 1,700 metres (3,440 and 5,580 ft) and its range probably extends southwards into the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in Mexico. Because there is no sign of the nest above ground, this ant may be under recorded. It is generally found in woodland of juniper and oak. [1]
Colonies of Acropyga epedana are completely subterranean. Nests have been found under boulders and consist of galleries and chambers that may extend to 30 centimetres (12 in) or more underground, and perhaps deeper in the dry season. This species has an obligate trophobiotic relationship with the mealybug, Rhizoecus colombiensis. This underground sap-sucking insect feeds on the roots of plants and the ants herd them and feed on the honeydew they produce. The ants are believed to obtain all their nourishment from this source, and in a laboratory experiment, when they were deprived of their mealybugs, they refused all other forms of food that they were offered. [2] The mealybugs are found clustered on roots in deeper parts of the nest in the passages excavated by the ants. Many of the ants are infested with parasitic mites. [3]
Flights of winged reproductive ants (alates) have been seen in mid-summer, shortly after the beginning of seasonal rains. There are often ten times as many male as female alates. Each female emerges from her natal nest carrying a mealybug between her mandibles, presumably to act as a parent of the mealybug herd in the nest she will found. The flying ants hover in a swarm and copulate in mid-air. The females return to the ground after their nuptial flights, each still carrying a mealybug, shed their wings, and search for a suitable site to make a new nest. [3] Some may join colonies in existing nests, as evidenced by the fact that there are often several queens in a nest. [3]
Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm habitats. Many species are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases. Some ants live in symbiotic relationships with them, protecting them from predators and feeding off the honeydew which they excrete.
The black garden ant, also known as the common black ant, is a formicine ant, the type species of the subgenus Lasius, which is found across Europe and in some parts of North America, South America, Asia and Australasia. The European species was split into two species; L. niger, which are found in open areas; and L. platythorax, which is found in forest habitats. It is monogynous, meaning colonies contain a single queen.
Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the superfamily Coccoidea due to taxonomic uncertainties. Adult females typically have soft bodies and no limbs, and are concealed underneath domed scales, extruding quantities of wax for protection. Some species are hermaphroditic, with a combined ovotestis instead of separate ovaries and testes. Males, in the species where they occur, have legs and sometimes wings, and resemble small flies. Scale insects are herbivores, piercing plant tissues with their mouthparts and remaining in one place, feeding on sap. The excess fluid they imbibe is secreted as honeydew on which sooty mold tends to grow. The insects often have a mutualistic relationship with ants, which feed on the honeydew and protect them from predators. There are about 8,000 described species.
An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the various groups of these developed sociality independently through convergent evolution. The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, numerous sterile females and, seasonally, many winged sexual males and females. In order to establish new colonies, ants undertake flights that occur at species-characteristic times of the day. Swarms of the winged sexuals depart the nest in search of other nests. The males die shortly thereafter, along with most of the females. A small percentage of the females survive to initiate new nests.
The yellow meadow ant, also known as the yellow hill ant, is a species of ant occurring in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Populations in North America are now considered a different, related species, Lasius brevicornis.
Myrmecia inquilina is a species of ant endemic to Australia in the subfamily Myrmeciinae, first discovered in 1955 and described by Athol Douglas and William Brown Jr. in 1959. These ants are large, measuring 21.4 millimetres (0.84 in). During the time of its discovery, Douglas and Brown announced M. inquilina as the first social parasite among the primitive subfamilies, and today it is one of the two known Myrmecia species to have no worker caste. Two host species are known, Myrmecia nigriceps and Myrmecia vindex. Aggression between M. inquilina and its host species does not occur, and colonies may only produce M. inquilina brood months after the inquiline queens begin to lay their eggs. Queens eat the colony brood or trophic eggs, and other Myrmecia species may kill M. inquilina queens if they reject them. Due to its restricted distribution and threats to its habitat, the ant is "vulnerable" according to the IUCN Red List.
Trophobiosis is a symbiotic association between organisms where food is obtained or provided. The provider of food in the association is referred to as a trophobiont. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek τροφή (trophē), meaning "nourishment", and -βίωσις (-biosis), which is short for the English word symbiosis.
Acropyga is a genus of small formicine ants. Some species can be indirect pests. A. acutiventris, which is found from India to Australia, tends subterranean, root-feeding mealybugs of the species Xenococcus annandalei. Living, gravid females are carried in the jaws of A. acutiventris queens during their nuptial flight, to establish the symbiotic association in founding colonies. Other Acropyga species have relationships with different species of mealybugs, and it could be a trait common to the whole genus.
Electromyrmococcus is an extinct genus of mealybug in the Pseudococcidae subfamily Rhizoecinae. The genus currently contains three species, all from the early Miocene, Burdigalian stage, Dominican amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola.
Acropyga acutiventris is an ant in the subfamily Formicinae. It lives underground in tropical regions and forms a mutualistic association with the mealybug, Xenococcus annandalei.
Dolichoderus mariae is a species of ant in the subfamily Dolichoderinae and is found in North America.
Liometopum apiculatum is a species of ant in the subfamily Dolichoderinae. Liometopum apiculatum ants are found in arid and semi-arid regions of southwestern United States and Mexico to Quintana Roo.
Polyergus rufescens is a species of slave-making ant native to southern Europe and parts of Asia, commonly referred to as the European Amazon ant or as the slave-making ant. It is an obligatory social parasite, unable to feed itself or look after the colony and reliant on ants of another species to undertake these tasks. To replenish these servant ants, it raids nearby ant colonies and carries home pupae and larvae, and these are reared to provide future workers for the colony. A newly mated female P. rufescens needs to make its way into one of these "host" nests, kill the host queen, and be accepted by the host workers in her place.
Formica pallidefulva is a species of ant found in North America. It is a red to dark brown ant with a shiny body, and varies in shade across its range. Colonies of this ant are found in a variety of habitats, where they excavate underground nests with galleries and chambers. In some parts of its range, the nests may be raided by slave-making ants, most notably Formica pergandei and Polyergus montivagus.
Camponotus socius or the Sandhill Carpenter ant is a large species of ant in the genus Camponotus. It was first described by Roger (1863), based on specimens from Brazil - however these can be considered highly dubious as the location where the type specimens were collected (Amazonas) does not fit the known ecology of the species within North America, where it exhibits traits typical of a native species. It is well adapted to the sandy soils of xeric woodlands found within the coastal plains of the southeastern United States. Its range includes the US states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North and South Carolina and Mississippi.
This is a glossary of terms used in the descriptions of ants.
Novomessor ensifer is a species of ant endemic to Mexico. A member of the genus Novomessor in the subfamily Myrmicinae, it was first described by Swiss entomologist Auguste Forel in 1899. N. ensifer was originally a part of the genus Aphaenogaster until a recent phylogenetic study concluded that Novomessor was genetically distinct and should be separated. The ant is a medium-sized species, measuring 5.5 to 10 millimetres. The ant is ferruginous-colored in some certain parts of the body, and small workers (nanitics) in incipient colonies are noticeably different in color and body structure.
Acropyga exsanguis is a species of ant in the subfamily Formicinae. It lives in underground nests in Mexico, Central and South America.
Geococcus coffeae is a species in the mealybug family, Pseudococcidae, commonly known as the coffee root mealybug, or brown scale. It lives underground where it inserts its mouthparts into roots and sucks the sap.
Reticulitermes tibialis, the arid-land subterranean termite, is a species of termite in the family Rhinotermitidae. It is found in the United States, mostly in the western half, occurring in deserts, prairies and other dry locations.
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