Morphological differentiation between species of Myrmelachista Roger (Formicidae: Formicinae) in Atlantic Forest areas of the Alto Tietê (São Paulo)

Authors

  • Márcia Akemi Nakano Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes
  • Rogério Rosa da Silva Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi
  • Vitor Fernandes Oliveira de Miranda Universidade Estadual Paulista
  • Rodrigo M. Feitosa Universidade Federal do Paraná
  • Maria Santina Morini Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v62i2.321-327

Keywords:

twigs, arboreal ants, morphometric variables, multivariate analysis, taxonomy

Abstract

Myrmelachista is an exclusively Neotropical ant genus. The ants from this genus nest and forage in live or dead trees, but data on its life cycle are relatively scarce. The taxonomy of this genus is considerably complex. The morphological characters of taxonomic importance are not well defined, and combining characteristics from the largest possible number of castes is thus essential. The goal of the present study was to present the results of multidimensional morphological analyses conducted based on morphometric measurements of workers and alates to help with the identification of Myrmelachista species. For that purpose, we gathered data from 277 specimens (workers, males and gynes) from eight species cohabiting Atlantic Forest areas. Eighteen morphometric variables were measured on workers and 20 on reproductive ants. Measurements related to eye size and mandible width were the variables more strongly associated with the two morphological clusters obtained based on the morphology of workers. However, the morphospace described by workers cannot be used to delimit the species of Myrmelachista. Mandible width, petiole height and eye size (eye length and ocelli width) were the most informative variables associated with the four clusters of morphology that clearly delimit males of M. arthuri, M. ruszkii/sp.7, and in part, M. catharinae. Finally, petiole length and head length were the best descriptors of the six morphological clusters recognized for gynes. M. catharinae, M. sp.7, M. nodigera and M. gallicola were clearly delimited in the gyne morphological space. M. ruszkii showed high phenotypic variability, and this species was classified in two morphological clusters based on gyne specimens. Species identification employing multiple gyne morphological traits exhibited the best results. Our results show that morphospace analysis can be useful for delimitation of Myrmelachista species.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Rodrigo M. Feitosa, Universidade Federal do Paraná

Departamento de Zoologia

Maria Santina Morini, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes

Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, Núcleo de Ciências Ambientais

References

Barr, C., Van Boven, J. & Gotward, Jr., W. H. (1985). Phenetic studies of african army ant queens of the genus Dorylus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology, 10: 1-10.

Bolton, B. (2013). An online catalog of the ants of the world. Available from http://antcat.org. (accessed [November, 30, 2013])

Brooks, S. P. (1994). Diagnostics for principal components: influence functions as diagnostic tools. The Statistician, 43: 483-494.

Cardoso, A., Serrano, A. & Vogler, A .P. (2009). Morphological and molecular variation in tiger beetles of the Cicindela hybrida complex: is an 'integrative taxonomy' possible? Molecular Ecology, 18: 648-664.

Colombo, A. F. & Joly, C. A. (2010). Brazilian Atlantic Forest lato sensu: the most ancient Brazilian forest, and a biodiversity hotspot, is highly threatened by climate change. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 70: 697-708.

Croux, C., Filzmoser, P. & Oliveira, M. (2007). Algorithms for projection-pursuit robust Principal Component Analysis. Chemometr Intell Lab 87: 218-225.

Deyrup, M. (2003). An updated list of Florida ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Florida Entomologist, 86: 43-48.

Edwards, D. P., Frederickson, M. E., Shepard, G. H. & Yu, D. W. (2009). A plant needs ants like a dog needs fleas: Myrmelachista schumanni ants gall many trees species to create housing. American Naturalist, 174: 734-740. doi: 10.1086/606022.

Ezard, T. H. G., Pearson, P. N. & Purvis, A. (2010). Algorithmic approaches to aid species' delimitation in multidimensional morphospace. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10: 175.

Fernández, F. & Sendoya, S. (2004). Lista de las hormigas Neotropicales (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Biota Colombiana, 5: 5-27.

Fernández, F. (2003). Subfamília Formicinae. In: Fernández, F. (Ed.) Introducción a las hormigas de la region Neotropical. Colômbia, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, 299-306p.

Fiaschi, P. & Pirani, J. R. (2009). Review of plant biogeography studies in Brazil. Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 47: 477-496.

Filzmoser, P. & Gschwandtner, M. (2014). mvoutlier: Multivariate outlier detection based on robust methods. R package version 2.0.5. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=mvoutlier.

Filzmoser, P., Fritz, H. & Kalcher, K. (2014). pcaPP: Robust PCA by Projection Pursuit. R package version 1.9-60. http://CRAN.R.-project.org/package=pcaPP.

Fraley, C. & Raftery, A. E. (2002). Model-based clustering, discriminant analysis and density estimation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 97: 611-631.

Frederickson, M. E. (2005). Ant species confer different partner benefits on two neotropical myrmecophytes. Oecologia, 143: 387-395. doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.0415.

Jackson, D. A. (1993). Stopping rules in principal component analysis: a comparison of heuristical and statistical approaches. Ecology, 74: 2204-2214.

Kempf, W. (1972). Catálogo abreviado das formigas da Região Neotropical (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Studia Entomologica, 15: 1-4.

Ketterl, J., Verhaagh, M., Bihn, J. H., Brandão, C. R. F. & Engels, W. (2003). Spectrum of ants associated with Araucaria angustifolia trees and their relations to hemipteran trophobionts. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 38: 199-206.

Klingenberg, C. P. & Froese, R. (1991). A multivariate comparison of allometric growth patterns. Systematic Biology, 40: 410-419.

Kusnezov, N. (1951). Myrmelachista en la Patagônia (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Acta Zoologica Lilloana, 11: 353-365.

Longino, J. T. (2006). A taxonomic review of the genus Myrmelachista (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Costa Rica. Zootaxa, 1141: 1-54.

Mcnett, K., Longino, J., Barriga, P., Vargas, O., Phillips, K. & Sagers, C. L. (2010). Stable isotope investigation of a cryptic ant-plant association: Myrmelachista flavocotea (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Ocotea spp. (Lauraceae). Insectes Sociaux, 57: 67-72. doi: 10.1007/s00040-009-0051-z.

Nakano, M. A. (2010). Caracterização morfológica, morfométrica e molecular de espécies de Myrmelachista Roger, 1865 (Formicidae: Formicinae) do Alto Tietê. Dissertação de Mestrado em Biotecnologia, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, SP, 137p.

Nakano, M. A., Feitosa , R. M., Moraes, C. O., Adriano, L. D. C., Hengles, E. P., Longui, E. L. & Morini, M.S.C. (2012). Assembly of Myrmelachista Roger (Formicidae: Formicinae) in twigs fallen on the leaf litter of Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Journal of Natural History, 46: 2103-2115. doi:10.1080/00222933.2012.707247.

Nakano, M. A., Miranda, V. F. O., Feitosa, R. M. & Morini, M. S. C. (2014). The genetic Characterization of Myrmelachista Roger Assemblages (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae) in the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil. Sociobiology, 61: 21-27.

doi: 10.13102/sociobiology.v61i1.21-27

Nakano, M. A., Miranda, V. F. O., Souza, D. R., Feitosa, R. M. & Morini, M. S. C. (2013). Ocurrence and natural history of Myrmelachista Roger (Formicidae: Formicinae) in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, 86: 169-179.

Peres-Neto, P. R., Jackson, D. A., Somers, K. M. (2005). How many principal components? Stopping rules for determining the number of non-trivial axes revisited. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 49: 974-997.

Quirán, E. M. & Martínez, J. J. (2006). Redescripción de la obrera de Myrmelachista gallicola (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) y primera cita para la provincial de La Pampa (Argentina). Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina, 65: 89-92.

R Core Team. 2014. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL http://www.R-project.org/.

Renner, S. S. & Ricklefs, R. E. (1998). Herbicidal activity of domatia-inhabiting ants in patches of Tococa guianensis and Clidemia heterophylla. Biotropica, 30: 324-327.

Seifert, B. (2002). How to distinguish most similar insect species – improving the stereomicroscopic and mathematical evaluation of external characters by sample of ants. Journal of Applied Entomology, 126: 445-454.

Seifert, B., Ritz, M. & Csösz, S. (2014a). Application of exploratory data analyses opens a new perspective in morphology-based alpha-taxonomy of eusocial organisms. Myrmecological News, 19: 1-15.

Seifert, B., Yazdi, A. B. & Schultz, R. (2014b). Myrmica martini sp.n. - a cryptic species of the Myrmica scabrinodis species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) revealed by geometric morphometrics and nest-centroid clustering. Myrmecological News, 19: 171-183.

Silva, R. R. & Brandão, C. R. F. (2010). Morphological patterns and community organization in leaf-litter ant assemblages. Ecological Monographs, 80: 107-124.

Snelling, R. R. & Hunt, J. H. (1975). The ants of Chile (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Revista Chilena de Entomologia, 9: 110-114.

Stout, J. (1979). An association of an ant, a mealy bug, and an understory tree from a Costa Rican Rain Forest. Biotropica, 11: 309-311.

Suguituru, S. S., Morini, M. S. C., Feitosa, R. M. & Silva, R. R. (2015). Formigas do Alto Tietê. Editora Canal 6, Bauru, SP, 456p.

Suguituru, S. S., Silva, R. R., Souza, D. R., Munhae, C. B. & Morini, M. S. C. (2011). Ant community richness and composition across a gradient from Eucalyptus plantations to secondary Atlantic Forest. Biota Neotropica, 11: 1-8.

Torres, J. A. (1984). Niches and coexistence of ant communities in Puerto Rico: Repeated Patterns. Biotropica, 16: 284-295.

Wheeler, W. M. (1934). Neotropical ants collected by Dr. Elisabeth Skwarra and others. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 77: 157-240.

Downloads

Published

2015-06-30

How to Cite

Nakano, M. A., da Silva, R. R., de Miranda, V. F. O., Feitosa, R. M., & Morini, M. S. (2015). Morphological differentiation between species of Myrmelachista Roger (Formicidae: Formicinae) in Atlantic Forest areas of the Alto Tietê (São Paulo). Sociobiology, 62(2), 321–327. https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v62i2.321-327

Issue

Section

Research Article - Ants