The ant genus pheidole is a highly diverse lineage of ants that are dominant elements of tropical and. The similarity in size distributions does not merely reflect strong. Antinduced alopecia is a form of localized hair loss caused by the pheidole genus, the second largest genus of ants in the world. The genus first evolved in the americas, eventually spreading across the globe. Pheidole is spread through 35 new world countries, but the number of species, as well as the relative percentage of all species, varies greatly table 1. Pheidole hymenoptera, formicidae of middle american wet forest. Then, one of those ants colonized the old world, where it evolved into another six hundred or so ant species. Specimens already examined and identified to be pheidole morphospecies using morphological taxonomy were used for dna extraction. Global phylogenetic structure of the hyperdiverse ant genus pheidole reveals the repeated evolution of.
Its closest relatives on the tree were two species that had been included in corrie moreaus 2008 pheidole phylogeny and idd as p. A member of the fallax group similar in various characters to pheidole bergi, pheidole chiapasana, pheidole cordiceps, pheidole dione, pheidole humeridens, pheidole industa, pheidole laevivertex, pheidole madrensis, pheidole maja, pheidole nitidula and pheidole tetroides, and distinguished as follows. Workers, minors and majors, can be moderately abundant in winkler or berlese samples of forest floor litter but are rarely collected at baits. The bha has been a pest in southern florida for many years, and according to reports by pest control operators, has become the most pervasive. Jan 07, 2015 as the old world pheidole comprise a monophyletic clade, this implies a reevolution of the distribution found in the new world. Workers from colonies of pheidole longispinosa forel, 1891 in primary forests of ranomafana national park in the fianarantsoa province of madagascar engaged in periodical predatory raids against neighboring nests of rival ants, most prevalently pheidole oswaldi forel, 1891 and paraparatrechina glabra emery, 1914.
Of these species groups, 17 are of new world origin and two are of old world origin. Since cerrado ant richness varies strongly with latitude and climate vasconcelos et al. Pheidole specimens were identified to species with the key for neotropical species given by wilson. The predatory behavior of pheidole megacephala alain dejeana. Moreaub, pierre uzaca, julien le bretona, martin kennec a cnrsguyane ups 2561 and umrcnrs 5174, residence le relais, 16, avenue andrearon, 97300 cayenne, france b museum of comparative zoology, harvard university, 26 oxford street, cambridge, ma 028, usa. Pheidole is a genus of ants that belongs to the ant subfamily myrmicinae.
A history of the new world order maniacal in checking facts a good and necessary characteristic for a researcher. In particular, the association of bacterial symbionts with ants is an active area of study. In a brief discussion of the old world pheidole, wilson ambiguously treats the. Jun 14, 2006 the controversy concerning the extent to which the organization of division of labor in social insects is a developmental process or is based on task allocation dynamics that emerge from colony need independent of worker age and endocrine or neural state has yet to be resolved. In a brief discussion of the old world pheidole, wilson ambiguously treats the p. A history of the new world order as source material. Formicidae is described from southern bahia in brazil, after the morphology of its minor and major workers. Wilson untangles its classification for the first time, characterizing all 625 known species, 341 of which. Dna barcodes for species identification in the hyperdiverse. We selected 177 old world pheidole species for our analysis, and as economo et al. Pheidole megacephala receives a high3 in this category. Pdf pheidole nasutoides, a new species of costa rican ant.
Field collections were preserved in 95% ethanol until the time for dna extraction. Baroni urbani, 1995 prompts us to question whether the pattern of spine evolution and loss experienced by ancestral new world pheidole will be recapitulated by the more recent colonists of the old world. A new species of pheidole formicidae, myrmicinae zookeys. Mississippi entomological museum, ants formicidae of the. Mitochondrial dna was isolated for at least two minor workers from each morphospecies using the qiagen dneasy tissue extraction kit. Species of the genus pheidole are the most abundant and diverse ants of the new world and range from the northern united states to. The lack of occurrence at baits suggests largely nocturnal foraging or foraging restricted to areas beneath litter or in rotten wood. Sorry, we are unable to provide the full text but you may find it at the following locations.
Interestingly, army ants in the genus neivamyrmex have an overlapping geographical distribution gotwald 1995 and are frequently found within the vicinity of various. Description top of page most species of the genus pheidole, including p. Agerelated repertoire expansion and division of labor in. Wilson untangles its classification for the first time, characterizing all 625 known species, 341 of which are new to science, and ordering them into 19 species groups. The two old world species groups are each represented in the new world by a single introduced species p. The patchy distribution suggests that this species is being transported to new localities by people. Malagasy ant pheidole longispinosa forel, 1891 behavior as.
Given that worker polymorphism has been associated with seedhar. The phylogenetic relationships of pheidole are investigated with special interest in understanding factors that may have led. In the new world, where this species is certainly exotic, there are published p. New data on the fauna and biology of acarid mites acari, acaridae from the far east. Ethology ethologie the predatory behavior of pheidole. Wilson 2003 proposed 19 species groups within the new world pheidole based on overall similarity. They generally occupies a large variety of ecological. Download fulltext pdf pheidole nasutoides, a new species of costa rican ant that apparently mimics termites article pdf available in psyche a journal of entomology 991 january 1992 with 38. The controversy concerning the extent to which the organization of division of labor in social insects is a developmental process or is based on task allocation dynamics that emerge from colony need independent of worker age and endocrine or neural state has yet to be resolved. Worldwide spread of pheidole teneriffana hymenoptera. Invasive ants offer a good model for exploring this issue.
B box plot from transformed bacteria quantities from pheidole organized by old world and new world ant collection site. And the discovery of an extinct spinescent pheidole lineage from an island in the caribbean wilson, 1985. Influence of host phylogeny, geographical location and seed. Very little is known, however, about the degree of ecological and behavioral differentiation of coexisting species comprising pheidole communities. Taxonomy, biology, and distribution of seed harvesting ants in the pheidole californica complex hymenoptera. The new world and the old world are almost completely independent of each other, economo said. Pheidole in the new world, a dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus. The presence of symbiotic relationships between organisms is a common phenomenon found across the tree of life. We took advantage of a recently published phylogeny of 140 pheidole species moreau, 2008 to investigate how major and minor worker head size and shape have evolved in relation to each other and to diet. Pheidole in the new world paperback january 1, 1980 by edward osborne wilson author see all 2 formats and editions hide other formats and editions. Pheidole teneriffana is known from only a few old world sites distant from the mediterranean region, i. Instead of coming out with the old world clade with all the other native melanesian ants, this one species was reliably nested within the new world clade.
We present a novel analysis of temporal polyethism in the ant pheidole dentata, demonstrating that task. Both the speciestree and concatenated analysis recovered the monophyly of all old world pheidole with the crown node dated to 22. Zootaxa, additions to the taxonomy of new world pheidole antwiki. Pheidole longispinosa workers engaged in sporadic hit and run attacks. The hyperdiverse subfamily myrmicinae, comprising the genus pheidole is unsurpassed for number of species in a single ant genus 6. We present a novel analysis of temporal polyethism in the ant pheidole dentata, demonstrating that task attendance by. In this study, i reconstruct the phylogeny of pheidole using molecular characters from three mitochondrial genes and two nuclear genes for. In 2003 wilson published a prodigious tome on the new world pheidole. The species in the dataset were delineated through.
You can read online pheidole in the new world here in pdf, epub, mobi or docx formats. In cases where identification was not possible with this identification key e. The new world ants of the genus solenopsis hymenoptera. Our new samples were concentrated in the old world pheidole, but as we used several new markers since previous phylogenetic work, we also sequenced.
The exotic ant, pheidole obscurithorax naves, is currently expanding its range and increasing in local density in the southeastern united states. Ants of the genus pheidole are abundant and hyperdiverse, particularly in neotropical rainforests. Formicidae, new species from tabuleiro forests of the atlantic forest biome hereafter a new species of pheidole westwood, 1839 hymenoptera. Species of the genus pheidole are the most abundant and diverse ants of the new world and range from the northern united states to argentina.
Our current covid19 crisis isnt the first time this nation has faced an epidemic. Pheidole megacephala pest rating proposals and final ratings. The hyperdiverse ant genus pheidole has its center of diversity in the new world, where over 600 species occur. Unraveling the evolutionary history of the hyperdiverse. Unraveling the evolutionary history of the hyperdiverse ant. Pheidole comprises approximately 1,000 extant species distributed worldwide, being particularly diverse in the new world. There may also be some positive economic impact from the entry of bigheaded ant to california. Dec 01, 2011 pheidole teneriffana is known from only a few old world sites distant from the mediterranean region, i. The genus pheidole in the new world contains hundreds of species, and identifying them based on external morphology is no easy task. Pdf pheidoleinthenewworld free download download pdf.
A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus download download pdf. We describe new county records from 5 states and local density increases along roadside transects in the tallahassee, florida area. The large number of species is to be expected as pheidole is the dominant taxon of new world ant ground ant assemblages fowler 1994, but some species. The bigheaded ant bha, pheidole megacephala fabricius, is a very successful invasive species that is sometimes considered a danger to native ants and has been nominated as among 100 of the worlds worst invaders hoffman 2006. Pheidole in the new world makes a sizeable advance, describing 624 species of ant, of which 337 are new to science. The bigheaded ant bha, pheidole megacephala fabricius, is a very successful invasive species that is sometimes considered a danger to native ants and has been nominated as among 100 of the world s worst invaders hoffman 2006. A twoday visual survey of old town key west in florida in may 2018 was conducted to determine the distribution of urban ants in this city. George washington and the creation of an american institution, tells about the yellow fever outbreak that our country faced in its capital during its early yearsand how our first president responded. Recognizing 624 species, of which more than half are new to science, this work provides the first comprehensive treatment of pheidole on such a large geographic scale. In catalog of hymenoptera in america north of mexico. Communitylevel interactions and functional ecology of. Additionally, the ecological role of the major worker subcaste, thought to be significant to the diversification of pheidole, is poorly understood.
Return to article details pheidole in the new world. Influence of host phylogeny, geographical location and. The census covered approximately 230 hectares and revealed that the area was partitioned into mutually exclusive territories by a pheidole megacephala cluster on the northern end, and fire ant colonies solenopsis invicta and s. Pheidole first evolved in the new world, from one species to over six hundred species. The second dataset morphometric included information obtained directly from the measurements on the type specimens of 96 new world pheidole species available in wilson 2003 that were also present in the recent phylogeny by moreau 2008 and included five traits measured separately for minors and majors. Bigheaded ants have been shown to help control pest insects in some circumstances by consuming damaging pest insects that do not produce honeydew and replacing them with less damaging honeydew. Pheidole in the new world wilson, edward osborne on. This close relationship between ants and microbes can significantly impact host biology and is also considered one of the driving forces in ant evolution and diversification. Size and shape in the evolution of ant worker morphology. The following information is derived from barry boltons new general catalogue, a catalogue of the world s ants. Moreover, the diversity in body size within both new world and old world pheidole faunas highlights the evolutionary lability of this trait. Traditional dichotomous keys are frustrating because so many steps are needed and most characters are continuously variable across the genus. Pheidole is currently the most species rich genus of ants in the world, with many taxa still awaiting description. Global phylogenetic structure of the hyperdiverse ant genus.