Pseudomyrmecinae
| Pseudomyrmecinae | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pseudomyrmex gracilis |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pseudomyrmecinae | ||||||||||||
| Smith , 1952 |
The Pseudomyrmecinae are a subfamily of the ants . It has its distribution center in the tropics and occurs with some species up to the subtropics. The subfamily is absent in Europe.
features
Workers are usually elongated and gracefully built, many species are relatively large with body lengths of up to 10 millimeters. The free abdomen or gaster sits with two thickened stalk members ( Petiolus and Postpetiolus) on the trunk section, just like with the knot ants (Myrmicinae), with which they are not closely related. The head has strikingly large, elongated, oval complex eyes . The antennae usually have 12 segments (only 11 in the small genus Myrcidris ), their basal limb (Scapus) is relatively short, less than three quarters of the head capsule length. Your turning point is near the front edge of the head, it is always free and not covered by the frontal lobes. The front edge of the clypeus is straight and not drawn forward between the frontal keels. On the trunk section ( mesosoma or alitrunk) the seam between prosoma and mesosoma is continuous, the body can move against each other along this line. The opening of the metapleural glands is shifted far back. On the gaster, the rear edge of the fourth abdominal segment is reshaped to generate sound through stridulation . Inside there is a large and functional poison sting.
In some species of the genus Tetraponera there is a second caste with enlarged heads or mandibles, which are known as soldiers, in addition to the normal workers. In the Malagasy species Tetraponera phragmotica , the greatly enlarged, transformed head of these soldiers forms a plug that can firmly seal the cavity in the wood in which the people live in the event of attacks.
Biology and way of life
All species of the subfamily nest above ground, most in dead wood of trees (especially branches), some also in stems of herbaceous species. From here some species also migrated to cavities in buildings and other man-made structures. More than forty species live exclusively in special organs ( domatia ) of specialized plant species ( ant plants ). Nesting is usually done in existing cavities and boreholes of other wood-dwelling insect species. Most of the species are unspecialized predators , in addition, numerous species take in more or less large proportions of the sugary excretions ( honeydew ) of aphids or scale insects ; these can represent the essential nutritional basis of tree-dwelling species. In species of the genus Tetraponera , nitrogen-fixing symbiotic intestinal bacteria have been proven, which help to compensate for the lack of nitrogen in this diet through reabsorption; these are predominantly nodule bacteria , which are otherwise known from the root nodules of nitrogen-fixing plant species.
The colonies are in most cases quite small, hardly more than 100 workers. In many cases the colonies have numerous queens (polygyny).
Species in symbiosis with plants
Over forty species from all three genera of the subfamily live in a symbiosis with plant species called myrmecophylaxis . These form special, mostly completely or partially hollow, plant organs called domatia. The ants nest exclusively in the domatia, with each ant species specializing in a plant species or genus. In addition, some of the plants form special structures (nectaries or protein-rich bodies) for feeding the ants. The most important nutritional basis of these ant species is the honeydew of plant-sucking scale insects (of the families Coccidae and Pseudococcidae ) living inside their domatia . The ants normally do not consume any further food if they also kill the herbivores attacked while defending "their" plants and use them as food . They are completely dependent on their plant partner and in many cases hardly ever leave their domatia voluntarily, except when vibrations tell them the landing of an insect (a potential herbivore). The advantage of the plant lies in the protection that the defensive ants grant against herbivores, but also against competing plant species (e.g. lianas ).
The symbiosis occurs in numerous species of ants that are not closely related to one another, so it must have arisen many times independently of one another in evolution. In the Pseudomyrmecinae alone, it must have arisen more than ten times in unrelated species or groups. Plants partner of the symbiosis, for example, acacia TYPES ( Acacia ), species of the genus Tachigali ( Caesalpinioideae ) Triplaris ( Polygonaceae ) and Cordia ( Boraginaceae in the genus Pseudomyrmex ), other Acacia species, species of the genus Cupaniopsis ( Sapindoideae ), Stereospermum ( Bignoniaceae ), Barteria ( Passifloraceae ) for species of the genus Tetraponera . The symbiotic partner of Myrcidris epicharis is Myrcia madida ( Myrtaceae ).
Systematics and phylogeny
The subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae includes three genera with about 230 species.
- Pseudomyrmex Lund, 1831. 134 species (plus 12 known only from fossil sources ). Neotropic , some species north to the south of the USA.
- Myrcidris Ward, 1990. A species of Myrcidris epicharis . A second species has been discovered in Guyana but not yet described . Amazonia , Brazil.
- Tetraponera F.Smith, 1852. 95 species (plus 19 known only from fossils, including some from Baltic amber .) Tropics and subtropics of the Old World, including Australia and Madagascar .
A phylogenetic study in which morphological features and comparing homologous DNA sequences were combined makes it likely that the genus Tetraponera over the other genera paraphyletisch could be. The American genera Pseudomyrmex and Myrcridis are believed to be sister groups .
The sister group of the Pseudomyrmecinae itself is with high probability the Australian subfamily Myrmeciinae . The common clade is sometimes called "myrmeciomorph".
Portraits of some Pseudomyrmecinae species (all pictures: April Nobile, AntWeb)
Pseudomyrmex gracilis
Pseudomyrmex apache
Pseudomyrmex cladoicus
Pseudomyrmex denticollis
Pseudomyrmex tenuissimus
Pseudomyrmex sericeus
Myrcidris epicharis
Tetraponera allaborans
Tetraponera ophthalmica
Tetraponera nigra
Poisonous effect
There are case reports of poison stings in humans of species of the genus Pseudomyrmex from the southeast of the USA , with allergic reactions occurring in individual cases.
Individual evidence
- ^ Philip S. Ward (1990): The ant subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): generic revision and relationship to other formicids. Systematic Entomology 15: 449-489. doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.1990.tb00077.x
- ^ The Ant Subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae, homepage of the research group of Philip S. Ward, University of California
- ^ Philip S. Ward (2006): The ant genus Tetraponera in the Afrotropical region: synopsis of species groups and revision of the T. ambigua group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 8: 119-130.
- ↑ a b Alain Dejean, Nicolas Labrière, Axel Touchard, Frédéric Petitclerc, Olivier Roux (2014): Nesting habits shape feeding preferences and predatory behavior in an ant genus. Natural Sciences Volume 101, Issue 4: 323-330.
- ↑ Steven van Borm, Alfred Buschinger, Jacobus J. Boomsma, Johan Billen (2002): Tetraponera ants have gut symbionts related to nitrogen-fixing root-nodule bacteria. Proceedings of the Royal Society London Series B 269: 2023-2027. doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2002.2101
- ↑ Pseudomyrmecine ants associated with specialized ant-plants. Homepage of the research group of Philip S. Ward, University of California
- ^ A b Philip S. Ward (1991): Phylogenetic analysis of pseudomyrmecine ants associated with domatia-bearing plants. In: CR Huxley & DF Cutler (editors): Ant-Plant-Iteractions. Oxford University Press, 1991.
- ↑ Alain Dejean, Champlain Djiéto-Lordon, Jérôme Orivel (2008): The plant ant Tetraponera aethiops (Pseudomyrmecinae) protects its host myrmecophyte Barteria fistulosa (Passifloraceae) through aggressiveness and predation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 93: 63-69. doi: 10.1111 / j.1095-8312.2007.00927.x
- ^ A b Philip S. Ward & Douglas A. Downie (2006): The ant subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): phylogeny and evolution of big-eyed arboreal ants. Systematic Entomology 30: 310-335. doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2004.00281.x
- ↑ Ricardo Eduardo Vicente, Wesley Dáttilo, Thiago Junqueira Izzo (2012): New record of a very specialized interaction: Myrcidris epicharis Ward 1990 (Pseudomyrmecinae) and its myrmecophyte host Myrcia madida McVaugh (Myrtaceae) in Brazilian Meridional Amazon. Acta Amazonica vol. 42 (4): 567-570.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Philip S. Ward: Phylogeny, classification, and species-level taxonomy of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa. 1668, 2007, pp. 549-563. ( PDF ).
- ^ Corrie S. Moreau, Charles D. Bell, Roger Vila, S. Bruce Archibald, Naomi E. Pierce: Phylogeny of the ants: diversification in the age of angiosperms . In: Science . tape 312 , no. 5770 , 2006, p. 101-104 , doi : 10.1126 / science.1124891 .
- ^ 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 . Access via BioOne.
- ^ Ants of the southwestern United States: Pseudomymex gracilis
- ↑ John H. Klotz, Richard D. deShazo, Jacob L. Pinnas, Austin M. Frishman, Justin O. Schmidt, Daniel R. Suiter, Gary W. Price, Stephen A. Klotz (2005): Adverse reactions to ants other than imported fire ants. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Vol. 95: 418-425.
