Tesis
Interação entre as formigas parabióticas Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) e Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003 com suas epífitas associadas e influência sobre a composição da assembleia de formigas da Amazônia Meridional
Fecha
2016-09-13Registro en:
VICENTE, Ricardo Eduardo. Interação entre as formigas parabióticas Camponotus femoratus (Fabricius, 1804) e Crematogaster levior Longino, 2003 com suas epífitas associadas e influência sobre a composição da assembleia de formigas da Amazônia Meridional. 2016. 162 f. Tese (Doutorado em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade) - Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Instituto de Biociências, Cuiabá, 2016.
Autor
Izzo, Thiago Junqueira
Cruz, Wesley Francisco Dáttilo da
http://lattes.cnpq.br/4069859384161064
http://lattes.cnpq.br/7106236848048146
Izzo, Thiago Junqueira
276.712.688-44
http://lattes.cnpq.br/7106236848048146
Feitosa, Rodrigo dos Santos Machado
306.011.888-45
http://lattes.cnpq.br/6600267892415480
276.712.688-44
356.817.658-06
Tonon, Danielle Storck
008.543.999-17
http://lattes.cnpq.br/3125442709598218
Mateus, Lucia Aparecida de Fátima
544.259.641-87
http://lattes.cnpq.br/5434630030379616
Pansonato, André
721.243.341-15
http://lattes.cnpq.br/9728574067170553
Sousa, Wesley Oliveira de
893.547.101-15
http://lattes.cnpq.br/2364419808001246
Institución
Resumen
A remarkable mutualistic interactions between ants and plants found in tropical forests is
known as Ants-Gardens (AGs). The association between Camponotus femoratus
(Fabricius, 1804) (Formicinae) and Crematogaster levior Longino 2003 (Myrmicinae) is
among the most commonly found in the Neotropics. In AGs of these two species of
parabiotic ants some species of epiphytic phylogenetically distant are often found. So to be
effective mutualist partner the ants need to recognize and respond to all the different
volatile chemical compounds of all associated species. Moreover, it is possible that plant
AGs have converged as chemical signals when attacked by herbivores. If this were true,
the ants also recruit all species of AGs locally. Considering this, in addition to describing
the composition and the frequency of epiphytic species associated with nests locally, in the
first chapter we tested the hypotheses that 1) the ants recognize chemical stimuli issued by
different plants that inhabit the AGs and 2) they can differentiate this chemical stimulus
when compared to the volatiles from a abundant plant specie of the understory. We found
that only Ca. femoratus responds to herbivory stimuli in their mutualist epiphytes and that
his reaction is related to overall frequency of epiphytes. When exposed to the AGepiphytes Peperomia macrostachya (Piperaceae) and Codonanthe uleana (Gesneriaceae)
leaves it was observed that the recruitment of Ca. femoratus workers was, on average,
respectively 556% and 246% higher than control (paper strips). The number of ants
recruited by Markea longiflora (Solanaceae) or by the understory plant Piper hispidum
(Piperaceae) did not differ from piece of paper. Because of this strong relationship of
parabiotic ants with their mutualist epiphytes that need light to grow, in the second chapter
we have created hypotheses that 1) the canopy openness of forest gaps influence the
presence of AGs, and, 2) larger gaps will have more nests and 3) increase in both the
canopy openness and the gap size will increase the colony size in forest gaps. Furthermore,
it is known that although the arboreal nest, parabiotic ants are found foraging in the soil
and in the vegetation. Then, we also believe that 4) the parabiotic ants are most frequently
sampled in the vegetation and 5) increasing complexity of the vegetation and the litter
accumulated volume in the soil increase the foraging of these ants in vegetation and
ground, respectively, and the increase in canopy openness increases the activity of the two
species in both strata. The presence and number Ants-Gardens, as colony size, was affected
by the location, but not for the canopy openness. However, there was no difference in
utilization of vertical strata by Ca. femoratus or by Cr. levior. On the other hand, the
frequency of Ca. femoratus on the ground decreases with the canopy openness but is not
affected by the complexity of the vegetation. In the frequency of Cr. levior on the ground
also decrease with increasing the canopy openness. But, as opposed to Ca. femoratus, Cr.
levior also shown to be influenced by the complexity of vegetation with a reduction in the
frequency of workers that foraging on the ground with the increase of complexity in the
vegetation. But not the complexity and canopy openness influence the foraging frequency
of these ants in the understory. As these abundant species are considered dominant
behaviorally, in Chapter 3, we investigated their impact on soil and vegetation ant
communities separately. In this chapter in addition to investigating the effect of parabiotic
ants in abundance, richness and community composition in both strata separately, we
assessed whether they affected different components of beta diversity (turnover and
nesting). Still, we assess which species are indicators of its presence or absence.