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The ant Acromyrmex ameliae is a social parasite of two leaf-cutting ant subspecies: Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus and A. subterraneus brunneus. Cytogenetic data are available for 14 species of Acromyrmex and all of them possess 2n = 38 chromosomes. In this study, chromosome number, heterochromatin detection, and detection of AT and GC-rich blocks of colonies of A. ameliae and its hosts were carried out. Additionally, the detection of nucleolus organizer regions and 18S rDNA clusters in chromosomes of the parasite and physical mapping of telomeres were undertaken. The same chromosome number and morphology were detected for the hosts 2n = 38 (10m + 14sm + 12st + 2a), while the females and males of the social parasite A. ameliae presented 2n = 36 (10m + 16sm + 8st + 2a) and n = 18 (5m + 8sm + 4st + 1a). In both A. ameliae and its hosts, the terminal region on the short arm of the largest subtelocentric pair is heterochromatic GC-rich, and this region corresponded to the 18S rDNA clusters in the parasite. The short arms of several chromosomes were heterochromatin-rich. The telomeric probe hybridized telomeres on all chromosomes of the parasite and was not detected in intrachromosomal regions. Through a comparative cytogenetic analysis, we hypothesize that the karyotype of A. ameliae (2n = 36) originated from a chromosomal rearrangement that reduced the number of chromosomes from 38 to 36; as available data on the genus Acromyrmex show that all other species possess 38 chromosomes, representing 45% of the 33 valid species in this genus. The mechanism of the chromosome rearrangement is discussed. Thus, the chromosome number observed in A. ameliae is a derivation from the genus. Our data show variation in the chromosomal number in Acromyrmex and suggest that analyses of the karyotypes of parasite species can yield novel insights with regards to the evolution of this genus.

Canalization underlies the expression of steady phenotypes in the face of unsteady environmental conditions or varying genetic backgrounds. The chaperone HSP90 has been identified as a key component of the molecular machinery regulating canalization and a growing body of research suggests that HSP90 could act as a general capacitator in evolution. However, empirical data about HSP90-dependent phenotypic variation and its evolutionary impact is still scarce, particularly for non-model species. Here we report how pharmacological suppression of HSP90 increases morphological variation up to 87% in the invasive ant Cardiocondyla obscurior. We show that workers treated with the HSP90 inhibitor 17-DMAG are significantly more diverse compared to untreated workers in two of four measured traits: maximal eye distance and maximal propodeal spine distance. We further find morphological differentiation between natural populations of C. obscurior in the same traits that responded to our pharmacological treatment. These findings add support for the putative impact of HSP90 on canalization, the modularity of phenotypic traits, and its potential role in morphological evolution of ants.

Gabohyla pauloalvini is a small Neotropical hylid, known only from three localities besides its type locality. Knowledge about its natural history is scarce and we present the first data about its diet. We conducted our fieldwork during the rainy period between November and December of the years 2014 and 2015. Thirty-eight G. pauloalvini individuals, collected in a semi-permanent pond inside a “cabruca” (cacao plantation shaded by trees), municipality of Ilheus, Bahia, Brazil, were stomach-flushed. All stomach contents were identified to the lower taxonomic category as possible. The Index of Relative Importance (IRI) revealed that Formicidae was the most important prey category for G. pauloalvini. We assume that G. pauloalvini is an ant specialist. Diet records for others species of the tribe Sphaenorhynchini showed mainly ants as prey items, which reinforces an ecological synapomorphy for this tribe. Beyond diet, we also reported observations of possible parental care performed by G. pauloalvini females.

As large amounts of natural environments are lost due to urbanization, the role of remnant native vegetation in the preservation of biodiversity has become even more significant. Remnant native forest patches are essential refugia for flora and fauna and are crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem processes in urbanized landscapes. We evaluated the influence of landscape structure on ants and spiders associated with Atlantic Forest remnants in urban landscapes. We sampled 14 forest areas in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador and tested the effect of the landscapes' proportion of forest cover, mean landscape isolation, and mean landscape shape complexity on the taxonomic and functional richness and the community composition of both groups. The species collected were classified into functional groups based on behavioral attributes and environmental preferences. Overall, there were strong adverse effects of forest loss, decreased connectivity, and an increase in edge effects associated with the mean shape complexity of the forest remnants. However, the spiders responded to all three landscape structure characteristics whereas the ants only responded to the landscape mean shape complexity. Our findings indicate that the maintenance of urban forest habitats is essential for the conservation of biodiversity in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador and the preservation of ecological functions performed by species within the forest areas.

International audience; Ant communities are extremely diverse and provide a wide variety of ecological functions in tropical forests. Here we investigated the abiotic factors driving ant composition turnover across an elevational gradient at Mont Itoupé, French Guiana. Mont Itoupé is an isolated mountain whose top is covered by cloud forests, a biogeographical rarity that is likely to be threatened according to climate change scenarios in the region. We examined the influence of six soil, climatic and LiDAR derived vegetation structure variables on leaf-litter ant assembly (267 species) across nine 0.12-ha plots disposed at three elevations (ca. 400, 600 and 800m asl). We tested (a) whether species cooccurring within a same plot or a same elevation were more similar in terms of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic composition, than species from different plots/elevations, and (b) which environmental variables significantly explained compositional turnover among plots. We found that the distribution of species and traits of ant communities along the elevational gradient was significantly explained by a turnover of environmental conditions, particularly in soil phosphorus and sand content, canopy height and mean annual relative humidity of soil. Our results shed light on the role exerted by environmental filtering in shaping ant community assembly in tropical forests. Identifying the environmental determinants of ant species distribution along tropical elevational gradients could help predicting the future impacts of global warming on biodiversity organization in vulnerable environments such as cloud forests.

O ambiente interno de um formigueiro mantém condições homeostáticas, permitindo a sobrevivência de outros animais, além de a colônia ser um lugar complexo e com um sistema bem estruturado de defesa. Ninhos de formigas se tornam adequados para a sobrevivência e a reprodução de inúmeros organismos, que podem utilizá-los apenas como abrigo ou até mesmo se alimentar dos restos das formigas. Os substratos de formigueiros de Dinoponera lucida, Dinoponera gigantea (Ponerinae) e Paraponera clavata (Paraponerinae) foram coletados nos municípios de Belmonte, Bahia, e Caxias, Maranhão. Foram, assim, amostrados três ninhos de D. lucida, quatro de D. gigantea e um de P. clavata. Os animais de maior tamanho foram coletados diretamente no substrato, colocado, em seguida, em funis de Berlese durante sete dias para extração da mesofauna. Nossos dados mostraram que existe maior diversidade de invertebrados associados ao ninho de P. clavata do que aos de D. lucida e D. gigantea, provavelmente por este possuir volume maior e oferecer diversidade maior de locais para reprodução e nidificação de numerosas pequenas espécies animais. Além disso, a população de P. clavata é consideravelmente maior do que aquelas de Dinoponera, aumentando proporcionalmente a probabilidade de ocorrer interações dentro da colônia.

Mimetismo é um fenômeno no qual uma espécie apresenta características morfológicas derivadas da evolução convergente com outra espécie não relacionada e que lhe confere alguma vantagem seletiva. Estudar animais miméticos e seus modelos pode auxiliar na compreensão das relações ecológicas e evolutivas em uma comunidade complexa. Relacionamos aranhas miméticas de formigas com seus possíveis modelos. Definimos similaridade mímico x modelo a partir de comparações baseadas em critérios morfológicos. Analisamos 104 aranhas miméticas (11 gêneros, quatro famílias). As formigas-modelo mais frequentes são Ponerinae, predadoras agressivas comuns que exploram todos os estratos de florestas e agroflorestas. Formigas-modelo do gênero Pseudomyrmex apresentam características similares; as demais (Cephalotes, Camponotus, Crematogaster e Dolichoderus) são tolerantes a outros animais próximos ao formigueiro; além de Eciton, que são predadoras nômades, agressivas e populosas. As características mais frequentemente imitadas pelo mimético são constrições, padrões de cor, pelos distribuídos no cefalotórax e alongamento do corpo, que confundem o observador com os três tagmas da formiga-modelo. Raramente há sobreposição exata entre os detalhes morfológicos do modelo e do mimético. A morfologia dessas aranhas sugere mais as feições de um gênero/grupo de formigas do que uma única espécie-modelo

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a diversidade e a especificidade dos mutualismos formigas-hemipteros, de acordo com as diferentes estruturas observadas nas arvores de cacau. O experimento foi realizado em dois sistemas de plantio de cacau: ‘cabruca’ e ‘derruba total’, em Ilheus, Brasil. Fizemos observacoes e coletamos mensalmente, ao longo de um ano, as formigas e os hemipteros em interacoes mutualisticas em arvores de Theobroma cacao L. As observacoes foram realizadas em tres locais distintos da planta: flores, frutos e lancamentos. Observamos 932 associacoes entre formigas-hemipteros, compreendendo 203 diferentes interacoes mutualisticas. Registramos 26 especies de hemipteros e 54 de formigas. Nao observamos diferencas na comunidade de formigas, no entanto, observamos diferenca para a comunidade de hemipteros, de acordo com as diferentes estruturas avaliadas. Registramos total de 404 eventos de trofobiose em frutos, 394 em lancamentos e 134 em flores. Nossos resultados apontam que a diversidade de trofobioses nos agrossistemas cacaueiros se assemelha a diversidade encontrada em florestas tropicais, demonstrando que a localizacao das interacoes pode resultar em restricoes ecologicas para alguns organismos envolvidos nessas trofobioses nos agrossistemas cacaueiros estudados.

Criada em 1990, a Coleção de Formicidae do Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau (CPDC) conta atualmente com cerca de 500.000 espécimes, em geral montados a seco, correspondendo a aproximadamente 4.000 espécies nominais e morfoespécies. Além da coleção geral, existe uma pequena coleção de tipos e uma biblioteca de pesquisa no âmbito do Laboratório de Mirmecologia. O laboratório é multi-institucional e a curadoria da CPDC está hoje dividida entre J.H.C. Delabie (Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau/Comissão Executiva de Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira – CEPEC/CEPLAC e Universidade Estadual Santa Cruz - UESC) e A. Arnhold (Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia - UFSB). O bioma Mata Atlântica, sobretudo da Bahia e do Espírito Santo, está particularmente bem representado, com séries de amostras provenientes de florestas, manguezais, cacauais, sistemas agroflorestais, pastagens e outros cultivos regionais. A coleção contribui também na conservação de muito material biológico brasileiro da região amazônica, do Cerrado, da Caatinga e de outros países da região neotropical, assim como de outras regiões biogeográficas. A dinâmica de incorporação do material biológico na coleção é detalhada ao longo do texto, assim como as perspectivas de desenvolvimento das futuras ações previstas em torno da Coleção CPDC, em parcerias com a UESC e a UFSB.

Some species are more affected than others by edge effects resultant from habitat loss and fragmentation, generally due to human activities. As these specific responses depend on biophysical and behavioral traits of organisms, it is expected that the occurrence of species with particular traits will vary between fragment edges and interiors. Edges are also known to often harbor many invasive species. We performed a meta-analysis of the responses of insect species with different life history traits to anthropogenic edges, focusing on the species’ behavioral characteristics and whether they are considered invasive or not. We systematically searched the Web of Science database for papers on this subject published until May 2018. We examined response ratios for 712 comparisons of anthropogenic edge effects on insects. As expected, the responses differed according to the traits evaluated. Soil-foraging and social insects were negatively affected by anthropogenic edges. Conversely, flying and invasive species were favored by edges. Our analyses suggest that edges, by differently affecting different insect groups, have an important role in structuring local insect communities. Finally, the importance of functional traits in studies of edge effects must be highlighted.

International audience; Ants are a major ecological group in tropical rainforests. Few studies in the Neotropics have documented the distribution of ants from the ground to the canopy, and none have included the understorey. A previous analysis of an intensive arthropod study in Panama, involving 11 sampling methods, showed that the factors influencing ant β diversity (i.e., changes in assemblage composition) were, in decreasing order of importance, the vertical (height), temporal (season), and horizontal (geographic distance) dimensions. In the present study, we went one step further and aimed (1) to identify the best sampling methods to study the entire ant assemblage across the three strata, (2) to test if all strata show a similar horizontal β diversity and (3) to analyze the functional structure of the entire ant assemblage. We identified 405 ant species from 11 subfamilies and 68 genera. Slightly more species were sampled in the canopy than on the ground; they belonged to distinct sub-assemblages. The understorey fauna was mainly a mixture of species found in the other two strata. The horizontal β diversity between sites was similar for the three strata. About half of the ant species foraged in two (29%) or three (25%) strata. A single method, aerial flight interception traps placed alongside tree trunks, acting as arboreal pitfall traps, collected half of the species and reflected the vertical stratification. Using the functional traits approach, we observed that generalist species with mid-sized colonies were by far the most numerous (31%), followed by ground- or litter-dwelling species, either specialists (20%), or generalists (16%), and arboreal species, either generalists (19%) or territorially dominant (8%), and finally army ants (5%). Our results reinforce the idea that a proper understanding of the functioning of ant assemblages requires the inclusion of arboreal ants in survey programs.

Hemipterans and ants are frequently recorded in trophobiotic associations, generally mutualism. Nests of the fire-ant Solenopsis virulens (Smith) found at the base of trees in the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil, were investigated for their commensal fauna. The present study provides new information about the mutualism between the fire-ant with hemipterans Membracidae and Monophlebidae found in their nests, this report is the first mention of this kind of relationships in South America. Such associations are very common between ants and treehoppers but have seldom been reported with the family Monophlebidae.

The state of Pará in northern Brazil is located entirely within the Amazon Basin and harbors a great diversity of landscape and vegetation types that support high levels of biodiversity. Here, we provide a comprehensive inventory of ant species and their distribution in Pará. This regional list is based on an extensive review of species records from published and unpublished sources covering a period of 134 years (1886–2020) and includes the five most representative ant collections in Brazil. In total, we documented 12 subfamilies, 90 genera and 753 ant species, including 97 species recorded for the first time in Pará and 12 species newly reported in Brazil. Sampling effort across the state is highly uneven, and most records may be associated with research areas near the state capital, mining areas, hydroelectric dams, and research field stations run by the state or universities. In addition, our results suggest a strong bias in ant collection in Pará in terms of proximity of sampled sites to access routes, such as roads and rivers. We also found that species records were highly unevenly distributed based on areas of endemism within the Amazon, vegetation type, and protected areas within the state. Ant surveys are still lacking from most protected areas of Pará, and further sampling is urgently needed in view of the current trend of expansion of major infrastructure projects and natural resource harvesting within protected areas of Pará. Our database represents an extremely valuable and rich source of information for further studies on ant biodiversity and conservation in the Amazon Basin.

The female, male and larva of a new species of Scutacarus Gros, 1845 (Acari: Heterostigmatina: Scutacaridae) and male and larva of Petalomium megasolenidiatum Silva, Khaustov & Oliveira, 2018a (Neopygmephoridae) are described. These mites were found associated with Camponotus cingulatus Mayr, 1862 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the state of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil. Biological aspects of the mites living in the ant’s nest are discussed.

SummaryNests of ants in the Ponerinae subfamily harbor a rich diversity of invertebrate commensals that maintain a range of interactions which are still poorly known in the Neotropical Region. This...

Urban green recreational spaces may provide habitat for animals and plants. We investigated the importance of urban public parks in the city of Rio de Janeiro with regard to the conservation of ant species by comparing both the structure of the ground-dwelling ant community between urban parks and continuous forests and the influence of environmental factors on possible differences. Fifteen urban areas were sampled (5 isolated parks, 5 non-isolated parks and 5 forest areas). Ants were sampled at sardine bait stations and through manual/visual searching in quadrats around the baits. We identified 120 ant species (4 exotic species) distributed across 38 genera and 7 subfamilies. The four exotic species were Monomorium floricola, Paratrechina longicornis, Pheidole megacephala and Tetramorium simillimum. Both the taxonomic and functional diversity of ground-dwelling ants were higher in continuous forests, followed by non-isolated and then isolated urban parks. Environmental factors were found to be key drivers influencing the differences in ant community structure among continuous forests and urban parks. Soil compaction and canopy cover predicted the diversity patterns of the taxonomic and functional compositions of the ant communities. The ant species in the study areas exhibited a non-random pattern of distribution and a spatial association of species segregation. There was high spatial turnover of ant species in the study areas, indicating that conservation efforts are required in all studied urban areas, not just those areas considered to be species rich. Therefore, we need to conserve more species in more areas, not necessarily those high in richness.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T15:44:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-08-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) National Science Foundation Ant inquiline social parasites obligately depend on their hosts for survival and reproduction. Because of their shift from a eusocial to a socially parasitic life history, inquiline social parasites are interesting study systems for exploring the dynamics between conflict and cooperation in eusocial insect colonies. In addition, inquiline social parasites are of interest to evolutionary biology, because some species evolved directly from their hosts via sympatric speciation. With five described species, inquiline social parasites are relatively diverse in the fungus-growing ants. So far, four species have been reported from the leaf-cutting ant genus Acromyrmex and its closely affiliated social parasite genus Pseudoatta. In contrast, only a single parasite species was described from the lower attine genus Mycocepurus. Here, we describe a new species of inquiline social parasite, Acromyrmex fowleri sp. nov., which was discovered 27 years ago in the tropical region of Brazil (State of Bahia), living inside the colonies of its host Acromyrmex rugosus. We also report observations on the behavioral ecology and natural history of A. fowleri and its host. Our study suggests that A. fowleri is an obligate, queen-tolerant, workerless inquiline social parasite of A. rugosus and that A. fowleri represents some but not all morphological and life history characters of the inquiline syndrome, supporting the hypothesis that the complex traits of the inquiline syndrome evolve in a mosaic fashion. Considering that A. fowleri is a new social parasite species from tropical Brazil, we discuss the paradoxical biogeographic distribution of ant social parasites, which we refer to as the “Kutter–Wilson Paradox”, and conclude that the Kutter–Wilson Paradox is a genuine biogeographical pattern, instead of being a mere sampling artifact. School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Laboratório de Biosistemática Animal Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia Departamento de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia Campus de Jequié Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz UESC Laboratório de Mirmecologia CEPLAC/CEPEC/SEFIT, Km 22 Rodovia Ilhéus-Itabuna Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) FAPESP: 2011/50226-0 FAPESP: 2014/25507-3 CNPq: 307128/2014-8 CNPq: 309611/2015-6 CNPq: 409721/2016-6 National Science Foundation: DEB-1456964 National Science Foundation: DEB-1654829

Se analiza el origen y evolución del término gremio, así como su aplicación en ecología, considerando las múltiples connotaciones que se le ha dado y la confusión que se ha generado por utilizarlo de forma indebida. De igual forma, se discute la importancia de homogenizar los términos y definir de manera clara a los gremios, a fin de tener un leguaje que permita entender los alcances del término sin ambigüedades. El uso del término, así como su persistencia en estudios ecológicos, sugiere que el mismo tiene relevancia considerable dependiendo de la forma y el modo en que es empleado. El uso inadecuado o derivado de este término es arriesgado y peligroso, dado que tiende a reducir el término a una palabra vacía con múltiples significados. Más que nada, esta trivialización constituye una amenaza al uso y significado adecuado del concepto de gremio en ecología.

Despite the increasing number of studies dealing with interaction networks in the last few years, there is still a lack of knowledge about how their structural organization are affected by changes in binary or weighted data. To fill this gap, we collected ants foraging on plants with extrafloral nectaries in 10 sites within the Brazilian Amazon to evaluate if the generality, vulnerability, nestedness, and modularity observed in these ant-plant networks could be affected by changes in data categories. Specifically, we used three matrices built by different data categories: (i) binary data (i.e., presence or absence of an interaction between a plant and an ant species); (ii) frequency data (i.e., number of times in which a plant species interacted with an ant species); and (iii) abundance data (i.e., number of workers of an ant species recorded foraging on a plant species). In general, when analyzing different matrix categories, we observed changes in the structural organization of the studied ant-plant interaction networks. Surprisingly, however, at the species level, both categories of weighted data (i.e., frequency and abundance data) seem to be equally appropriate for describing the role of ant species. Our results highlight the need to expand the discussion about data categories in ecological interaction studies to understand how different data categories may lead to different ecological interpretations.

The fauna associated to nest belonging to nine species of three genera of Ponerinae ants were studied in two cacao agroforestry systems (Cabrua and Derruba Total) in southeast of the state of Bahia, Brazil. A total of 27 invertebrates orders comprising 87 recognized taxonomic units (RTU), were found associated to these nests. No differences were found in the abundances recorded in both agroforestry systems. The high values of the species richness and diversity of associated invertebrates were recorded to Neoponera verenae in both agroforestry systems, while the lowest value was recorded for the nest of Mayaponera constricta collected only in Cabruca. The most frequent groups were Collembola which was found in 95.8% of the reviewed nest, follow by Acari (94.7%), Hymenoptera (other ants species as well as parasitoids; 86.2%), Coleoptera (69.1%), Araneae (51%) and Symphyla (48.9%). Our study also shows the importance of Ponerinae ants’ nests as safe habitats that are attractive to many invertebrate groups, and also the importance of the cacao agroforestry system to conservation of a range of invertebrates associated to the nests of these ants.

International audience; Determining assembly rules of co-occurring species persists as a fundamental goal in community ecology. At local scales, the relative importance of environmental filtering vs. competitive exclusion remains a subject of debate. In this study, we assessed the relative importance of habitat filtering and competition in structuring understory ant communities in tropical forests of French Guiana. Leaf-litter ants were collected using pitfall and Winkler traps across swamp, slope and plateau forests near Saul, French Guiana. We used a combination of univariate and multivariate analyses to evaluate trait response of ants to habitat characteristics. Null model analyses were used to investigate the effects of habitat filtering and competitive interactions on community assembly at the scale of assemblages and sampling points, respectively. Swamp forests presented a much lower taxonomic and functional richness compared to slope and plateau forests. Furthermore, marked differences in taxonomic and functional composition were observed between swamp forests and slope or plateau forests. We found weak evidence for competitive exclusion based on null models. Nevertheless, the contrasting trait composition observed between habitats revealed differences in the ecological attributes of the species in the different forest habitats. Our analyses suggest that competitive interactions may not play an important role in structuring leaf-litter ant assemblages locally. Rather, habitats are responsible for driving both taxonomic and functional composition of ant communities.

Conversion of natural to anthropogenic environments affects biodiversity, and the understanding of these impacts may be improved by assessing how different functional groups respond to such land conversion. We studied land conversion impacts on ant functional groups, as ants are ecologically important and respond well to various environmental changes. We hypothesized that conversion of natural to anthropogenic environments modifies the composition of functional groups, fostering generalist and opportunistic groups over specialist ones, with more responses of this type in tropical than in temperate regions. We recovered 412 papers from ISI Web of Science, of which we selected 17 studies, published between 1993 and 2018, that addressed our study’s question. We assessed whether each functional group responded positively or negatively to conversion of natural habitat into anthropogenic land uses and used Monte Carlo tests to assess significance. Ants were affected by natural habitat conversion into monoculture and polyculture and by the conversion of savannas and of tropical and subtropical forests. Land conversion affected six of the 13 functional groups assessed here. In the temperate zone, cryptic species, predators, subordinate Camponotini, cold-climate specialists and tropical-climate specialists were impaired, whereas hot-climate specialists were favored. In the tropics, land conversion negatively impacted fungus-growers and predators. In both climatic zones, several functional groups, mainly those with broad ecological niches, did not respond to land conversion. Our results corroborate that land conversion effects vary among ant functional groups and indicate that the ant fauna of temperate ecosystems may be more susceptible than that of tropical regions.

Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set-which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers-is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed to address specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and regional-wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.

Environmental impact studies often involve monitoring and using bioindicators to evaluate the restoration stage of impacted areas. We aimed to assess ant assemblages’ response to the ecological succession of previously disturbed areas in the Brazilian Amazon. We sampled epigeic ant assemblages in five bauxite mining areas, representing different restoration stages, and compared them with two pristine areas. We also compared trends in species richness at the same mine site investigated 14 years earlier. Ten pitfall traps and four Winkler samples of litter were taken along a 100-m transect in each area. We expected that ant species richness would increase with the amelioration in habitat condition (i.e., environmental surrogates of ecological succession, including litter depth, soil penetrability, the circumference of trees, the distance of trees to adjacent trees, and percentage of ground cover). We also compared the efficacy of both sampling methods. Due to more significant sampling effort, pitfall traps captured more ant species than Winkler sacks. However, Winkler samples’ addition allowed the collection of more cryptic species than by pitfall traps alone. We sampled a total of 129 ant species, with increases in ant species richness in more mature rehabilitation. Nevertheless, similarity analysis indicated a significant difference between ant assemblages of rehabilitated areas and pristine ones. Assemblages differed mainly by the presence of specialist and rare species, found only in pristine plots. Rehabilitated areas exhibited a significant increase in tree circumference as they reached more ecologically advanced stages, which contributed to increasing ant species richness. These trends and comparison with the earlier study indicate that although there are favorable increases in ant species richness, in terms of species composition, rehabilitated areas were far from achieving an ant assemblage composition or environmental status that closely resembles pristine areas.

Comprehensive biodiversity inventories are expensive and time-consuming to achieve, especially for groups of megadiverse organisms. One approach to resolve such situations is to utilize biological substitutes, referred to as surrogates. A surrogate should provide meaningful information at a lower cost and/or effort than the original level of resolution. Studies have shown that species richness is often not the best or most appropriate component or predictor of biodiversity. Functional diversity can be used as a measurement of the ecological differentiation between habitats or between biological functions. We evaluated the use of several taxonomic metrics as potential surrogates for leaf-litter ant assemblages distributed in 65 Atlantic rainforest sites. Our goal was to find reliable and economic substitutes for both taxonomic and functional leaf-litter ant diversity and composition. We tested four potential surrogate approaches for taxonomic metrics and three for functional group metrics. Additionally, we also evaluated the time and costs involved. We used a large leaf-litter ant database that comprises 364 ant species, respectively classified into 13 or 26 ant functional groups based on either a general and specific resolution. Subfamily was found to be an unacceptable surrogate for both taxonomic and functional group metrics. Mixed-level and indicator taxa metrics were rated as ‘excellent’ taxonomic surrogates. Mixed-level and genus metrics were rated as ‘excellent’ or ‘acceptable’ functional group surrogates when considering the most general functional resolution, while mixed-level and genus were considered as ‘excellent’ surrogates when considering the more specific resolution. The monetary and time costs to identify ants to genus level were lower than those using indicator taxa and mixed-level metrics. The use of a certain higher taxon functional and taxonomic surrogates allows a reduction of survey and analysis costs while still enabling the analysis of biological diversity from the taxonomic and functional point of view.

Infeccoes hospitalares, causadas por bacterias e fungos, constituem uma causa crescente de morbidade e mortalidade no Brasil e no mundo. Embora alguns insetos sejam vetores bem conhecidos de microrganismos, as formigas tem-se revelado cada vez mais como ameacas a saude publica, atuando como vetores mecânicos de microrganismos patogenicos. Foram realizadas coletas em diferentes setores de um hospital publico da cidade de Itabuna-BA nos meses de junho de 2009 a agosto de 2010. As formigas coletadas foram colocadas individualmente em tubos estereis, numerados e enviadas ao Laboratorio de Mirmecologia da CEPLAC para identificacao e, logo depois, para o Laboratorio de Microbiologia da UESC onde o material biologico foi processado. Esse processamento consistiu na inoculacao das formigas inteiras em Agar Sabouraud e em tubos com caldo BHI. Em seguida foram inoculadas nos meios de agar sangue, agar MacConkey, agar Manitol e em tubos contendo Agar Micosel. As bacterias foram classificadas microscopicamente pela coloracao de Gram. Os fungos foram identificados segundos aspectos morfologicos da colonia bem como caracteristicas morfologicas das estruturas microscopicas de reproducao, utilizando a tecnica de microcultivo. As especies bacterianas identificadas foram: Staphylococcus sp . e Bacillus sp. As principais especies de fungos identificados foram Aspergillus sp ., Cladosporium sp., Fusarium sp., Mucor sp., Paecilomyces sp., Rhizopus sp., e Rhodotorula sp., os quais estao amplamente envolvidos em infeccoes oportunistas. As especies de formigas prevalentes foram Paratrechina longicornis, Pheidole megacephala, Solenopsis saevissima e Tapinoma melanocephalum . Assim, conhecer as especies de formigas, bem como identificar as especies de microrganismos que sao encontradas e transportadas por esses insetos, podem subsidiar acoes educativas, complementando programas de prevencao e controle das infeccoes hospitalares.

The exuberant, pristine forest originally occupying an area stretching along today’s southern Bahia to the northern portion of Espirito Santo states was coined as the Hileia Baiana and represents a unique and highly diverse biota that, in addition to high levels of endemics, suffered the influence of past connections to the Amazonian biome. Herein we made an effort to present the key social, economic, and historical aspects that ultimately determined the current land use of this region. From the first colonial territorial division that encompasses two hereditary captaincies, Ilheus in the north and Porto Seguro in the south, the occupation process was fomented by the exploration of the brazilwood and the sugarcane plantation. Unlike the northeastern territories encompassing the Reconcavo and Zona da Mata, where sugar mills multiplied between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Ilheus and Porto Seguro, the production declined. In this territory, the production of cassava flour, the food basis of the colonial population, was developed, being more vigorous in the captaincy of Ilheus due to the greater proximity of the consumer markets of Bahia and Pernambuco. At the same time, the presence of large stocks of valuable timber encouraged the exploitation of such strategic resource to the metropolitan naval industry. In the nineteenth century, the favorable foreign market promoted a new sugarcane cycle and the introduction of new export crops, coffee, and cacao. In Ilheus, cacao plantations expanded in the second half of the nineteenth century, making the old headquarters of the captaincy the nucleus of a producing area that, in the twentieth century, also extended to territories of the former captaincy of Porto Seguro. Along the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Ilheus – in the south of what is now the state of Bahia – consolidated itself as a major cacao-producing region, while the occupation and the strengthening of the economy of the two regions earlier encompassing the Porto Seguro captaincy (extreme south of Bahia and north of Espirito Santo) were only solidified during the twentieth century. Five hundred years of colonization and successive economic cycles significantly reduced and degraded the native vegetation, but these forests are still significant reservoirs of the regional biota that inhabits the few remaining forests – legally protected or not – and the complex mosaic of different land uses that comprise the dominant human-modified landscapes. What is left still faces several threats regarding deforestation, fragmentation, and chronic disturbances that, if not adequately curbed, will probably jeopardize the long-term conservation of such important natural assets.

Politicians and environmental professionals have pointed to the lack of scientific knowledge to support legislation for planning urban centers. Thus, this essay aims to provide ecological knowledge to assist politicians and environmental professionals in decision making regarding the Brazilian urban zoning. As a science, ecology provides the necessary knowledge to assist the creation of guidelines and standards for urban zoning. Specifically, landscape ecology shows different methods of work, which have as parameters the qualification and quantification of urban environments. These parameters can be used as criteria for planning sustainable cities. The field of urban ecology has demonstrated the importance of conserving green and blue areas (water bodies) in cities, as well as the need for the formation of multidisciplinary teams for urban management and elaboration of public policies pointed to zoning sustainability strategies. Generally, ecology show contributions that assist in the creation of guidelines and norms for Brazilian urban zoning. The suggestions provided through this essay are a starting point for improving the formulation of laws designed to develop and strengthen the legislation on Brazilian urban zoning. Resumo Políticos e profissionais de meio ambiente têm apontado para a ausência de conhecimento científico para embasamento da legislação que dispõe sobre o planejamento urbano. Assim, o intuito desse ensaio é disponibilizar conhecimento ecológico para auxiliar políticos e profissionais de meio ambiente na tomada de decisões relacionadas ao zoneamento urbano do Brasil. Como ciência, a ecologia disponibiliza o conhecimento necessário para auxiliar a criação de diretrizes e normas para o zoneamento urbano. Especificamente, a ecologia de paisagem aponta diferentes métodos de trabalho, que possuem parâmetros de qualificação e quantificação do ambiente urbano. Esses parâmetros podem ser utilizados como critérios para o planejamento de cidades sustentáveis. Já a ecologia urbana tem demonstrado a importância da conservação de áreas verdes e azuis (corpos de água) nas cidades, além da necessidade da formação de equipes transdisciplinares para uma gestão urbana e elaboração de políticas públicas que visem a estratégia de zoneamento sustentável. De modo geral, a ciência da ecologia demonstra contribuições que auxiliam na criação de diretrizes e normas para o zoneamento urbano brasileiro. As sugestões fornecidas através desse ensaio constituem um ponto de partida para a formulação de melhorias nas leis destinadas a desenvolver e fortalecer a legislação relativa ao zoneamento urbano brasileiro.

The current demand for studies on ants in general and their communities in particular has exponentially increased during the last decades. Much has already been said about ant sampling techniques, but we attempt to present a critical approach to the different available methods for sampling ants, their limitations, and their complementarity. We focus on sampling methods for ant inventories; entire ant colony sampling for a range of purposes, such as behavioral, cytogenetic, or population studies; and ant community studies. Methods presented here are valid for both tropical and temperate regions taking into account that ants are essentially thermophilous and found in lower richness and abundance in cold regions or during cold seasons. Sampling depends on the stratum of interest. Thus, different methods, or a combination of them, may be selected for soil-, litter-, or vegetation-associated ants. Regardless of the method used, some considerations must always be taken into account. The first of these is compatibility of data between the sampling methods. Be they pitfall traps, Winkler sack samples, or whatever, such sampling units must be treated independently from each another; otherwise the inferential statistics used may not be valid or used with caution as violation of independence may occur in two non-mutually exclusive general forms: pseudoreplication and spatial (or temporal) autocorrelation, for example, which are common mistakes in ant studies. We provide recommendations for statistical approaches to the data and different suggestions of analyses that can be used for the different kinds of data taken with ants.

Regularly spaced earth mounds called “murundus” are scattered in several landscapes in the semi-arid region of Brazil. Although recent evidence indicates that termites are involved in the building of murundus, the contribution of these insects to soil-forming processes in those structures remains poorly understood. In this study, we tested a set of hypotheses to examine whether there are consistent evidence for suggesting the participation of termites in the formation of murundus soils. Morphological and physicochemical features of murundus were compared with adjacent soil profiles in the inter-mounds surface and one epigeic nest built by one species of Syntermes Holmgren. The murundus soils had a more clayey texture, higher contents of nutrients (C, N, P, K, Ca, and Mg) and organic matter compared with adjacent soils. We identified a set of recent and ancient traces inside the murundus that reveals the intense building activity of termite colonies (e.g., galleries, tunnels, and royal chambers), confirming that these structures are not only occupied by these insects but also built-up by them. Taken together, our results provide hard evidence that the long-term activity of mound-building termites was the hierarchically dominant process in producing murundus structures in the semi-arid region of Brazil. Based on available empirical data, we propose an explanatory model on how that construction process may have taken place.

RESUMO: A produção mundial de noz-pecã Carya illinoinensis (Juglandaceae) é liderada pelos Estados Unidos. No Brasil, em especial no Rio Grande do Sul, houve uma expansão da área plantada com a cultura nos últimos anos. No entanto, faltam pesquisas relacionadas à entomofauna associada à noz-pecã, bem como práticas culturais que auxiliem no Manejo Integrado de Pragas, mesmo havendo uma expansão da cultura. Assim, o presente estudo objetivou avaliar a fauna de artrópodes na copa de plantas de C. illinoinensis, submetido a diferentes manejos de solo, em Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Para tanto, utilizou-se delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, com cinco blocos e quatro tratamentos: plantio em cova pequena, com 20 × 60 cm (Sp); utilização de subsolador mais grade niveladora e cova pequena (Ssp); utilização de enxada rotativa e cova pequena (Tsp); e plantio em cova grande, com 40 × 60 cm (Lp). De novembro de 2014 a maio de 2015, foram coletadas 7.617 espécimes nas copas de árvores jovens de nogueira-pecã. Foram identificados 150 grupos taxonômicos, sendo Coleoptera a ordem com maior riqueza de espécies. Monellia caryella (Hemiptera: Aphididae) apresentou elevada densidade. Foram registrados os inimigos naturais himenópteros parasitoides e Coccinellidae. Conclui-se que a artropodofauna em copas de plantas jovens de nogueira-pecã apresenta diversidade similar entre os tratamentos e predomínio de M. caryella nas áreas avaliadas.