Evidences of Batesian Mimicry and Parabiosis in Ants of the Brazilian Savannah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v61i3.281-285Keywords:
Camponotus blandus, Pseudomyrmex termitarius, termites, mimicry evolution, Parabiosis, Brazilian Cerrado.Abstract
Despite the numerous records of ant-mimicking arthropods, reports of ant species that are mimics among themselves are still rare. In the savannah of central Brazil we found two ant species that are remarkably similar in color pattern and body size, Pseudomyrmex termitarius and Camponotus blandus. Both species are widely distributed in the Neotropical Region, but the cases of mimicry between them are apparently restricted to populations inhabiting nests of the termite Cornitermes cumulans in the Brazilian Cerrado. Field observations and excavation of the termitaries revealed that Camponotus blandus shares nest chambers and foraging trials with P. termitarius, and workers of both species are mutually tolerant. Our observations suggest that the morphological and behavioral similarities between these species represent a Batesian mimicry relationship in which the relatively palatable Camponotus blandus mimics the unpalatable P. termitarius for predator avoidance. The pacific association between the termitophilous colonies of these species may also suggest some level of parabiotic interaction.
References
Barker, RD. & Vestjens, WJM. (1990) The food of Australian birds. II Passerines. CSIRO, Melbourne, 557 pp.
Beccaloni, GW. (1997) Vertical stratification of ithomiine butterfly (Nymphalidae: Ithomiinae) mimicry complexes: the relationship between adult flight height and larval host-plant height. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 62(3): 313-341.
Brady, SG., Schultz, TR., Fisher, BL. &Ward, PS. (2006) Evaluating alternative hypotheses for the early evolution and diversification of ants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 13(48): 18172-18177.
Ceccarelli, FS. & Crozier, RH. (2006) Dynamics of the evolution of Batesian mimicry: molecular phylogenetic analysis of ant-mimicking Myrmarachne (Araneae: Salticidae) species and their ant models. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20(1): 286-295. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01199.x
Cushing, PE. (1997) Myrmecomorphy and myrmecophily in spiders: a review. Florida Entomologist 80:165-193.
Embrapa (2010) Home page.< http://www.cpac.embrapa.br/unidade/historia>. Acessed August, 12th 2011.
Fernández, F. (2003) Capítulo 21: Subfamilia Formicinae. Fernández F. (ed.). Introducción a las Hormigas de la Región Neotropical. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá, Colombia. XXVI + 398 p.
Fisher, RA. (1930) The genetical theory of natural selection, 2nd edn. Dover, London. X+ 195 pp.
Fowler, HG. & Crestana, L. (1987) Group recruitment and its organization in Camponotus blandus (Fr. Smith) (Hym.: Formicidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 31: 55-60.
Gobin, B., Peeters, C., Billen, J. & Morgan, ED. (1998) Interspecific trail following and commensalism between the ponerine ant Gnamptogenys menadensis and the formicine ant Polyrhachis rufipes. Journal of Insect Behaviour 11:361-368.
Haskins, CP. & Haskins, EF. (1950) Notes on the biology and social behaviour of the archaic ponerine ants of the genus Myrmecia and Promyrmecia. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 43: 461-491.
Hölldobler, B. & Wilson, EO. (1990) The Ants. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 732 pp.
Hölldobler, B. & Wilson, EO. (1992) Pheidole nasutoides, a new species of Costa Rican ant that apparently mimics termites. Psyche 99:15-22.
Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia – INMET. Normais climatológicas. Home page <http://www.inmet.gov.br/html/clima.php>. Acessed in February 20th 2011.
Ipinza-Regla, J., Fernández, A. & Morales, AM. (2005) Hermetismo entre Solenopsis gayi Spinola, 1851 y Brachymyrmex giardii Emery, 1894 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Gayana 69: 27-35. doi.org/10.4067/S0717-65382005000100005
Ito, F., Hashim, R., Huei, YS., Kaufmann, E., Akino, T. & Billen, J. (2004) Spectacular Batesian mimicry in ants. Naturwissenschaften 91: 481-484.
Jaffé, K., López, ME. & Aragot, W. (1986) On the communication systems of the ants Pseudomyrmex termitarius and P. triplarinus. Insectes Sociaux. 33(2):105-117.
Joron, M. & Mallett, JLB. (1998) Diversity in mimicry: paradox or paradigm? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13:461-466.
Kempf, WW. (1960) Estudo sôbre Pseudomyrmex I. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 9:5-32.
Lindström, L., Alatalo,. RV. & Mappes, J. (1997) Imperfect Batesian mimicry – the effects of the frequency and the distastefulness of the model. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 264:149-153.
Lythgoe, JN. (1979) Ecology and vision. Clarendon, Oxford. xi 244 pp.
McClure, M., Chouteau, M. & Dejean, A. (2008) Territorial aggressiveness on the arboreal ant Azteca alfari by Camponotus blandus in French Guiana due to behavioural constraints. Comptes Rendus Biologies 331(9): 663-667. Doi : 10.1016/j.crvi.2008.06.008
McIver, JD. & Stonedahl, G. (1993) Myrmecomorphy: morphological and behavioral mimicry of ants. Annual Review of Entomology 38:351-379.
Mendoça, GM. & Resende, JJ. (1996) Predação de Syntermes molestus (Burmeister, 1839) (Isoptera-Termitidae) por Camponotus blandus (Fr. Smith, 1858) (Hymenoptera-Formicidae) em Feira de Santana-Ba. Sitientibus 15:175-182.
Merrill, DN. & Elgar, MA. (2000) Red legs and golden gasters: Batesian mimicry in Australian ants. Naturwissenschaften 87:212-215. 10.1007/s001140050705
Mill, AE. (1981) Observations on the ecology of Pseudomyrmex termitarius (F. Smith) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Brazilian Savannas. Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 25: 271-274.
Nelson, XJ. & Jackson, RR. (2009) Collective Batesian mimicry of ant groups by aggregating spiders. Animal Behaviour 78 123-129. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.04.005
Pasteur, G. (1982) A classificatory review of mimicry systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 13:169-199.
Pie, MR. & Del-Claro, K. (2002) Male-Male Agonistic Behavior and Ant-Mimicry in a Neotropical Richardiid (Diptera: Richardiidae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 37(1): 19-22.
Pough, FH. (1994) Mimicry and related phenomena. In: Gans, C. & Huey, R.B. (eds) Biology of the reptilia, vol 16. Branta, Ann Arbor. 153-254.
Pulgarín, JA. (2004) Algunas observaciones sobre la estructura del nido y composición de colonias de Pseudomyrmex termitarius (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) en una localidad de Bello (Antioquia, Colombia). Revista de la Facultad Nacional de Agronomía, Medellín.
Quicke, DLJ., Ingram, SN., Proctor, J. & Huddleston, T. (1992) Batesian and Müllerian mimicry between species with connected life histories, with a new example involving braconid wasp parasites of Phoracantha beetles. Journal of Natural History 26: 1013-1034.
Redford, KH. (1984) The termitaria of Cornitermes cumulans (Isoptera: Termitidae) and their role in determining a potencial keystone species. Biotropica 16(2): 112-119.
Sanhudo, CED., Izzo, TJ. & Brandão, CRF. (2008) Parabiosis between basal fungus-growing ants (Formicidae, Attini). Insectes Sociaux 55(3): 296-300. DOI:10.1007/s00040-008-1005-6
Taniguchi, K., Maruyama, M., Ichikawa, T. & Ito, F. (2005) A case of Batesian mimicry between a myrmecophilous staphylinid beetle, Pella comes, and its host ant, Lasius (Dendrolasius) spathepus: an experiment using the Japanese treefrog, Hyla japonica as a real predator. Insectes Sociaux 52: 320-322. DOI: 10.1007/s00040-005-0813-1
Ward, PS. (1984) A revision of the ant genus Rhytidoponera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in New Caledonia. Australian Journal of Zoology 32:131-175.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Sociobiology is a diamond open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
eISSN 2447-8067
