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Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia, assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations
Ants of the genus Tatuidris Brown and Kempf (Formicidae: Agroecomyrmecinae) generally occur at low abundances in forests of Central and South America. Their morphological peculiarities, such as mandibular brushes, are presumably linked with specialized predatory habits. Our aims were to (1) assess t...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700978/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25199767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jis/14.1.108 |
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author | Jacquemin, Justine Delsinne, Thibaut Maraun, Mark Leponce, Maurice |
author_facet | Jacquemin, Justine Delsinne, Thibaut Maraun, Mark Leponce, Maurice |
author_sort | Jacquemin, Justine |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ants of the genus Tatuidris Brown and Kempf (Formicidae: Agroecomyrmecinae) generally occur at low abundances in forests of Central and South America. Their morphological peculiarities, such as mandibular brushes, are presumably linked with specialized predatory habits. Our aims were to (1) assess the Tatuidris abundance in an evergreen premontane forest of Ecuador; (2) detail morphological characteristics and feeding behavior of Tatuidris; and (3) define the position of Tatuidris in the food web. A total of 465 litter samples were collected. For the first time, live Tatuidris individuals were observed. Various potential food sources were offered to them. A nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis ((15)N/(14)N) was conducted on Tatuidris tatusia, other ants, and common organisms from the leaf-litter mesofauna. We found a relatively high abundance of T. tatusia in the site. Live individuals did not feed on any of the food sources offered, as usually observed with diet specialist ants. The isotope analysis revealed that T. tatusia is one of the top predators of the leaf-litter food web. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4700978 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47009782016-05-05 Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia, assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations Jacquemin, Justine Delsinne, Thibaut Maraun, Mark Leponce, Maurice J Insect Sci Papers Ants of the genus Tatuidris Brown and Kempf (Formicidae: Agroecomyrmecinae) generally occur at low abundances in forests of Central and South America. Their morphological peculiarities, such as mandibular brushes, are presumably linked with specialized predatory habits. Our aims were to (1) assess the Tatuidris abundance in an evergreen premontane forest of Ecuador; (2) detail morphological characteristics and feeding behavior of Tatuidris; and (3) define the position of Tatuidris in the food web. A total of 465 litter samples were collected. For the first time, live Tatuidris individuals were observed. Various potential food sources were offered to them. A nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis ((15)N/(14)N) was conducted on Tatuidris tatusia, other ants, and common organisms from the leaf-litter mesofauna. We found a relatively high abundance of T. tatusia in the site. Live individuals did not feed on any of the food sources offered, as usually observed with diet specialist ants. The isotope analysis revealed that T. tatusia is one of the top predators of the leaf-litter food web. Oxford University Press 2014-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4700978/ /pubmed/25199767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jis/14.1.108 Text en This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Papers Jacquemin, Justine Delsinne, Thibaut Maraun, Mark Leponce, Maurice Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia, assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title | Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title_full | Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title_fullStr | Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title_full_unstemmed | Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title_short | Trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,Tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
title_sort | trophic ecology of the armadillo ant,tatuidris tatusia,
assessed by stable isotopes and behavioral observations |
topic | Papers |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700978/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25199767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jis/14.1.108 |
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