Amblyoponinae

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amblyoponinae
Apomyrma stygia

Apomyrma stygia

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Superfamily : Vespoidea
Family : Ants (Formicidae)
Subfamily : Amblyoponinae
Scientific name
Amblyoponinae
Forel , 1893

Amblyoponinae are a subfamily of the ants (Formicidae). The subfamily includes eleven genera.

features

The subfamily is small to medium-sized with body lengths between about 2 to 10 millimeters and morphologically quite uniform. The most striking feature is the structure of the abdomen. At the rear end, the petiolus connects to the rest of the abdomen ( gaster ) at the full height , it is not clearly set off from it as with all other ants as a scaly or knot-shaped structure. It is almost sessile with a steeply sloping front and a clear, flat top, but connects to the rest of the abdomen without a recognizable rear (exception: the genus Apomyrma ).

Workers

Adetomyrma venatrix . Image: April Nobile, AntWeb

Workers have no ocelli and mostly more or less regressed or completely absent complex eyes. If present, these are located very far back on the head, always in the back half of it. The head is usually elongated oval or parallel-sided, somewhat flattened and without extended temples, its rear edge is straight or almost straight. The clypeus is strongly developed, often lobed in the middle and has a conspicuous row of teeth of tooth-shaped (dentiform) setae on the front edge of almost all species. The mandibles are shaped differently, but they are always well developed and pivoted far apart at the front corners of the head. The palps are always short, their number of segments is variable. The frontal keels are quite short and sit on both sides of the midline. The antennae usually have 12 segments, rarely only 11, with one species 7. The trunk section is elongated and parallel, its upper edge more or less flat, sometimes the pronotum is somewhat wider than the rest of the trunk. The suture (suture) between pronotum and mesonotum is continuous, both sections are often mutually movable. The claws of the tarsi are without separated (pre-apical) teeth. There are never any teeth or thorns on the propodeum. The metapleural glands are always clearly developed, they sit relatively centrally on the rounded propodeum. On the abdomen, segments 3 (the postpetiolus of other ants) and 4 are roughly ring-shaped and almost equal in size, between them only a shallow constriction can usually be seen, in some genera the constriction is deeper, the petiolus never has a pronounced rear edge. The gaster is almost always elongated, cylindrical and the width of the trunk. The poison sting is always present and often very large.

Sex animals

The general body shape of the queens resembles the worker, they are usually somewhat larger and more strongly pigmented. In most species, like the males, they are winged, they then have large complex eyes and three ocelli. Some species have wingless, very worker-like ("ergatoid") queens, which can only be distinguished from them by their size. As a major exception, one species even has very worker-like, wingless queens that are smaller than the workers. The males have 13 antenna segments. In both sexes, the wings at the rear end do not have a detached Jugal lobe.

Way of life

The species of the subfamily are predatory, they always live and hunt underground (hypogean) or within dead wood. As far as is known, the states are quite small, often with fewer than a hundred workers and up to 700 workers for one species ( Prionopelta amabilis ). For most species, colony is established independently by a, usually winged, queen; B. of the genus Mystrium also by splitting the colony, in which part of the workers accompanies the (wingless) young queens; in these species the queens have smaller mandibles and are not able to hunt independently. As far as is known, the division of labor between different workers is low or absent, but at least in the Australian Amblyopone australis and the East Asian Myopopone castanea workers with marked differences in size were found, suggesting a division of labor between them. A form of cannibalism has been observed in a number of species , in which the queen pricks the integument of larvae and sucks hemolymph, which is why they are also known as "Dracula ants". This behavior is known as LHF (Larval Hemolymph Feeding), and it occurs in other subfamilies as well. In one species, Onychomyrmex hedleyi , not only hunting in groups, but also a nomadic way of life with relocation of the nest location was observed, similar to that of the wandering ants .

As far as is known, almost all species hunt prey in groups that are considerably larger than themselves. In addition to beetle larvae, in almost all known cases these are centipedes of the subordination of the earth creepers (Geophilomorpha). As a major exception among the ants, they carry the larvae out of the nest to the immobilized prey, where they eat independently. At least Prionopelta amabilis hunts small prey ( double tails ). Species of the genus Mystrium have mandibles with a locked snap mechanism in which they cross over and deal a powerful blow to prey organisms or enemies.

Systematics

The group was traditionally understood as the tribe Amblyoponini within a broad subfamily Ponerinae, which included all morphologically "original" lines of the ants. Barry Bolton made them a subfamily along with the other Ponerinae tribes in 2003. A molecular study that included almost all genera was compatible with a monophyletic subfamily; however, the largest genus, Amblyopone, was classified as paraphyletic. The monophyly of the subfamily has repeatedly been disputed, for example the placement of the genus Apomyrma , for which a separate subfamily was split off by some researchers , is still problematic today . According to the study mentioned, this should be left with the Amblyoponinae.

The phylogeny of the ants, especially the subfamily Ponerinae in the traditional sense (now mostly referred to as "poneromorphic clades"), is contradictory between different studies and is still controversial today. The position of the Amblyoponinae in the system of the family Formicidae is not yet clear. According to purely morphological criteria, there are close relationships with the subfamily Leptanillinae, with which they have numerous morphological and behavioral characteristics in common. The structure of the Petiolus is particularly different. According to molecular studies, the sister group relationship of these groups was never confirmed, however, the Leptanillidae were often classified here as the most original subfamily and thus the sister group of all other ants together. There is, however, the possibility that this result is an artifact that can be traced back to a methodological error ("long branch attraction").

According to more recent family tree analyzes, the Amblyoponinae belong with high probability to a monophyletic group of "poneroids", which roughly correspond to the traditional subfamily Ponerinae (without Leptanillinae). This is in line with the assumption that the ancestral form of modern ants (the "crown group") also lived underground (hypogean).

Genera

Fossil finds

Amblyoponinae fossils were found in the Eocene Baltic amber and as compression fossils in oil shale from the Messel pit. Around the same time there are finds from some other fossil sites around the world, much older ones are missing. While they make up about 15 percent of the ant finds in Messel, they are very rare in Baltic amber and almost only exist as winged sex animals; this is explained by the predominantly subterranean way of life, which makes fossilization in amber less likely.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b B. Bolton (2003): Synopsis and classification of Formicidae. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 71: 1-370. p.41 ff
  2. ^ William L. Brown Jr. (1960): Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. III .: Tribe Amblyoponini (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College, Volume: 122: 145-230.
  3. ↑ Amblyoponinae on AntWeb
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Corrie Saux, Brian L. Fisher, Greg S. Spicer: Dracula ant phylogeny as inferred by nuclear 28S rDNA sequences and implications for ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Amblyoponinae) In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33, 2004, pp. 457-468. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2004.06.017
  5. ↑ Mathieu Molet, Christian Peeters, Brian L. Fisher (2007): Winged queens Replaced by reproductives smaller than workers in Mystrium ants. Science 94: 280-287. doi : 10.1007 / s00114-006-0190-2
  6. ↑ Barbara L. Thorne & James FA Traniello (2003): Comparative social biology of basal taxa of ants and termites. Annual Review of Entomology 48: 283-306. doi : 10.1146 / annurev.ento.48.091801.112611
  7. ↑ a b B. Hölldobler & EO Wilson (1986): Ecology and Behavior of the primitive cryptobiotic antPrionopelta amabilis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insectes Sociaux Volume 33, Issue 1: 45-58.
  8. ↑ Mathieu Molet, Brian L. Fisher, Fuminori Ito, Christian Peeters (2009): Shift from independent to dependent colony foundation and evolution of 'multi-purpose' ergatoid queens in Mystrium ants (subfamily amblyoponinae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 98: 198-207.
  9. ↑ C. Peeters & M. Moles (2010): Evolution of advanced social traits in phylogenetically basal ants: striking worker polymorphism and large queens in Amblyopone australis. Insectes Sociaux 57: 177-183. doi : 10.1007 / s00040-010-0067-4
  10. ^ A b Fuminori Ito (2010): Notes on the biology of the Oriental amblyoponine ant Myopopone castanea: Queen-worker dimorphism, worker polymorphism and larval hemolymph feeding by workers (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Entomological Science 13: 199-204 doi : 10.1111 / j.1479-8298.2010.00384.x
  11. ↑ H. Miyata, M. Hirata, N. Azuma, T. Murakami, S. Higashi (2009): Army ant behavior in the poneromorph hunting ant Onychomyrmex hedleyi Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae; Amblyoponinae). Australian Journal of Entomology 48: 47-52. doi : 10.1111 / j.1440-6055.2008.00683.x
  12. ↑ Keiichi Masuko (1993): Predation of centipedes by the primitive ant Amblyopone silvestrii. Bulletin of the Association of Natural Science, Senshu University, No.24: 35-44.
  13. ↑ Wulfila Gronenberg, Bert Hölldobler, Gary D Alpert (1989): Jaws that snap: control of mandible movements in the ant Mystrium. Journal of Insect Physiology Volume 44, Issues 3-4: 241-253. doi : 10.1016 / S0022-1910 (97) 00145-5
  14. ^ Roberto A. Keller (2011): A Phylogenetic Analysis of Ant Morphology (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with Special Reference to the Poneromorph Subfamilies. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Number 355: 1-90. doi : 10.1206 / 355.1
  15. ^ Ross H. Crozier (2006): Charting uncertainty about ant origins. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA vol. 103 no. 48: 18029-18030. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0608880103
  16. ↑ Seán G. Brady, Ted R. Schultz, Brian L. Fisher, Philip S. Ward (2006): Evaluating alternative hypotheses for the early evolution and diversification of ants. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA vol. 103 no. 48: 18172-18177. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0605858103
  17. ↑ Andrea Lucky, Michelle D. Trautwein, Benoit S. Guenard, Michael D. Weiser, Robert R. Dunn (2013): Tracing the Rise of Ants - Out of the Ground. PLoS ONE 8 (12): e84012. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0084012
  18. ↑ Donat Agosti & Cedric A. Collingwood (1987): A provisional list of the Balkan ants (Hym. Formicidae) with a key to the worker caste II: key to the worker caste, including the European species without the Iberian. Communications from the Swiss Entomological Society 60: 261-293.
  19. ↑ SA Tinaut (1988): El género Amblyopone Erichson en la Península Ibdrica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Miscellània Zoológica 12: 189-193.
  20. ↑ a b Seiki Yamane, Tuan Viet Bui, Katsuyuki Eguchi: Opamyrma hungvuong, a new genus and species of ant related to Apomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Amblyoponinae). Zootaxa Volume = 1767, 2008, pp. 55-63. ( Online ; PDF; 14 kB)
  21. ↑ a b c d e Lori Lach, Catherine L. Parr, Kirsti L. Abbott: Ant ecology. Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0199544639 , pp. 32-35
  22. ↑ GM Dlussky (2009): The Ant Subfamilies Ponerinae, Cerapachyinae, and Pseudomyrmecinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Late Eocene Ambers of Europe. Paleontological Journal Vol. 43, No. 9: 1043-1086.
  23. ↑ GM Dlussky & S. Wedmann (2012): The poneromorph ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae: Amblyoponinae, Ectatomminae, Ponerinae) of Grube Messel, Germany: high biodiversity in the Eocene. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Vol. 10, Issue 4: 725-753.

Web links

Commons : Amblyoponinae  - collection of images, videos and audio files