Adelomyrmex

Last updated

Adelomyrmex
Adelomyrmex biroi casent0178445 profile 1.jpg
Adelomyrmex biroi worker
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Adelomyrmecini
Genus: Adelomyrmex
Emery, 1897
Type species
Adelomyrmex biroi
Emery, 1897
Diversity [1]
30 species
Synonyms

ApsychomyrmexWheeler, 1910
ArctomyrmexMann, 1921

Adelomyrmex is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. [2] Species of Adelomyrmex are small, litter-inhabiting ants most often collected in Berlese and Winkler samples. Although the genus and its relatives have a pantropical distribution, Central American cloud forests are the only places where they are abundant and diverse. [3]

Contents


At the moment; Adelomyrmex Have 66 Species; including Morphotaxons.

Habitat and distribution

The center of Adelomyrmex abundance and diversity is Central America, and a few far-flung species occur in New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia, and Isla del Coco. [3] Several Adelomyrmex species are mountain-top endemics with very restricted ranges, and climate change clearly poses the threat of mountain-top extinction. [3]

The geographic range of the genus in the New World is (1) the mainland from northern Mexico to Amazonian Brazil; (2) the Galápagos, where the mainland species A. myops is probably recently introduced; and (3) Isla del Coco, a small oceanic island north of the Galápagos, with a highly distinctive endemic species. The genus is unknown from the Caribbean islands. The center of abundance and diversity is the Central American highlands south to western Panama. Elsewhere in the range the genus is always very rare with low local diversity. [3]

In Central America, Adelomyrmex occur primarily in mature wet forest habitats, in rotten wood and leaf litter on the forest floor. They are far more abundant in montane cloud forest than in lowland rainforest. In some cloud forest habitats they can occur in nearly 100% of miniWinkler samples (1 m2 samples of sifted litter) and dozens of individuals may occur in samples. In lowland rainforest they are rare, occurring in fewer than 10% of miniWinklers, and usually as one or two individuals per sample. Highland species are typically larger as well. Thus in some cloud forests Adelomyrmex make up a large proportion of the ant biomass (often sharing that role with another dominant cloud forest myrmicine genus, Stenamma ). In contrast, in lowland habitats they are very rare and a minute proportion of the biomass. In South America they are always rare, whether in lowlands or cloud forest. [3]

Morphology

Total tooth count.-4-7;Club antennal.-2 Total segment count.-12;Eyes.-2-10 omatidia;Pronotal-Mesonotal spines.-absent;Propodeal spines.-present(Dentiform); Petiolar spines.-absent;Scrobes.-absent;Metapleural gland.-present

Sting.-Present

Caste sistem.- None or Weak

Palp formula: 2,2; 1,2; 1,1

Nests

Given their abundance in cloud forest Winkler samples, remarkably few nests have been observed. Small nests of A. tristani and A. paratristani are occasionally found in bits of rotten wood on the ground. The dark workers curl and lie motionless on disturbance, blending with the background debris. Only the white brood gives them away. An exception is some montane sites in Guatemala and Chiapas where A. robustus occurs. Adelomyrmex robustus can be a more conspicuous presence, with large colonies in rotten wood at forest edges. Adelomyrmex bispeculum, a species endemic to Monteverde, Costa Rica, is only known from three nest collections. These nests were in small chambers in clay soil, one beneath a stone and two in a vertical trailside bank. It is revealing that this species has not been collected in the hundreds of sifted litter samples taken in the Monteverde area, in which A. tristani is very abundant. It suggests fine-scale microsite segregation of Adelomyrmex species. [4]

Biology

Head of an Adelomyrmex myops dealate queen Adelomyrmex myops casent0173239 head 1.jpg
Head of an Adelomyrmex myops dealate queen

Foragers are almost never seen. Adelomyrmex workers generally have small eyes and presumably forage almost entirely beneath the litter. In baiting transects in cloud forest, Adelomyrmex are occasionally encountered, but not in numbers that reflect their abundance in sifted litter samples. Nothing is known of their feeding habits. [3]

The reproductive biology of Adelomyrmex is mysterious. In Winkler samples, Adelomyrmex workers are routinely accompanied by wingless queens and intercaste individuals. The queens are about the same size as workers but with ocelli, large compound eyes, and the typical enlarged mesosoma of myrmicine queens. The typical sclerites of winged queens and apparent wing scars are present. One queen of A. silvestrii from a Winkler sample has a shred of membranous wing, as though it were irregularly torn or chewed off. Intercaste individuals show variable intermediacy between workers and queens, with variable presence of a single median ocellus, compound eyes of intermediate size, and an enlarged promesonotum. [4] In spite of the relative commonness of these putative reproductives, males and winged queens are rare in Central America. None have appeared in hundreds of Winkler samples, and none have appeared in Malaise samples from the same sites where Adelomyrmex are abundant in the litter. The only known winged reproductives in the genus are the single report of males and alate queens of A. vaderi, a species from Colombia. [4]

Species

Related Research Articles

<i>Cecropia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Cecropia is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the species being myrmecophytic. Berg and Rosselli state that the genus is characterized by some unusual traits: spathes fully enclosing the flower-bearing parts of the inflorescences until anthesis, patches of dense indumentums (trichilia) producing Mullerian (food) at the base of the petiole, and anthers becoming detached at anthesis. Cecropia is most studied for its ecological role and association with ants. Its classification is controversial; in the past, it has been placed in the Cecropiaceae, Moraceae, or Urticaceae. The modern Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system places the "cecropiacean" group in the Urticaceae.

<i>Megalomyrmex</i> Genus of ants

Megalomyrmex is a genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is known only from the Neotropics, where some of the species are specialized parasites or predators of Attini.

<i>Tatuidris</i> Genus of ants

Tatuidris, or armadillo ant, is a rare genus of ants consisting of a single species, Tatuidris tatusia. The ants are small in size and inhabit the leaf litter of Neotropical forests in Central and South America, from Mexico to Brazil. Workers are ferruginous-colored to dark red and present a distinctive morphology, consisting of a shield-like head with a broad vertex, ventrally-turned heavy mandibles which do not overlap at full closure, and unique among ants – an antenna socket apparatus sitting upside-down. Little is known about the biology of the ants, but they are likely nocturnal and specialist predators.

<i>Blepharidatta</i> Genus of ants

Blepharidatta is a rare Neotropical genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus, formed by predatory species whose small colonies nest in soil or leaf-litter, has up to seven species, but most of them are waiting for a formal taxonomic treatment or confirmation.

<i>Nylanderia</i> Genus of ants

Nylanderia is a large genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution with species inhabiting a wide array of habitats in almost all geographic regions. Nylanderia, currently containing over 110 species, is an ecologically important genus, with some species reported as being invasive. The ants are small to medium in size and range in color from pale yellow to black.

<i>Lenomyrmex</i> Genus of ants

Lenomyrmex is a Neotropical genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae.

<i>Tyrannomyrmex</i> Genus of ants

Tyrannomyrmex is a rare tropical genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Three similar species, only known from workers, are recognized and share small eyes and edentate mandibles.

<i>Phrynoponera</i> Genus of ants

Phrynoponera is a strictly Afrotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Ponerinae.

Megalomyrmex mondabora is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Known from Costa Rica. In Costa Rica this species occurs in wet forest habitats, typically in mature rainforest. Collections are from sea level to 800 m elevation on the Atlantic slope of the Cordillera Volcanica Central, Cordillera de Talamanca, and Cordillera de Guanacaste. It is a specialized nest parasite of attines and is found most often in nests of Cyphomyrmex cornutus. It cohabits with C. cornutus in their nests, feeding on both host brood and the host's fungal symbiont.

Megalomyrmex mondaboroides is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Megalomyrmex mondaboroides occurs in lowland wet forest habitats in Panama and Costa Rica. Colonies have been collected in the nests of small attines, primarily Cyphomyrmex costatus and Apterostigma goniodes. In Costa Rica a worker was collected in a Winkler sample of sifted leaf litter.

Megalomyrmex reina is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Described in 2010, this species is known only from queens from Costa Rica. The fact that it is known only from queens is reflected in the name.

Megalomyrmex modestus is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Known from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela.

<i>Megalomyrmex drifti</i> Species of ant

Megalomyrmex drifti is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The species is widespread in tropical South America, north through Central America to southern Mexico.

<i>Megalomyrmex incisus</i> Species of ant

Megalomyrmex incisus is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The species is known from southern Mexico south to central Brazil and Peru.

<i>Megalomyrmex silvestrii</i> Species of ant

Megalomyrmex silvestrii is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Megalomyrmex silvestrii is widespread in the mainland Neotropics from Mexico to northern Argentina. This species occurs in moist to wet forest habitats, from sea level to 1100 m elevation. It nests in small chambers in rotten wood or opportunistically in other small cavities in the soil. Colonies have been found in small attine nests and alone, suggesting it is a facultative predator of small Attini.

Megalomyrmex nocarina is a Neotropical species of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Megalomyrmex nocarina occurs in mature wet forest habitats of the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. It occurs from near sea level to 1110 m elevation. It is known exclusively as isolated workers in Winkler samples of forest floor litter.

This is a glossary of terms used in the descriptions of ants.

<i>Tyrannomyrmex alii</i> Species of ant

Tyrannomyrmex alii is a species of tropical ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. T. alii is native to the Western Ghats in India. The species was described from workers and a winged queen, the first Tyrannomyrmex species in which a queen has been described, while the males are not known. Three additional species are also known, with one also being native to the Western Ghats.

Acropyga exsanguis is a species of ant in the subfamily Formicinae. It lives in underground nests in Mexico, Central and South America.

References

  1. ↑ Bolton, B. (2015). "Adelomyrmex". AntCat. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Genus: Adelomyrmex". antweb.org. AntWeb . Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Longino 2012, p. 2
  4. 1 2 3 Longino 2012, p. 3
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.