Acromyrmex heyeri

Acromyrmex heyeri is a species of leaf-cutter ant, a New World ant of the subfamily Myrmicinae of the genus Acromyrmex.

Acromyrmex heyeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Subfamily:
Tribe:
Genus:
Species:
A. heyeri
Binomial name
Acromyrmex heyeri
Forel, 1899[1]

Distribution

Head view of ant Acromyrmex heyeri specimen.

This species is found in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.[2]

Description

Acromyrmex heyeri workers construct the colonies nest by thatching together cut grass. At temperatures ranging from 20–30 °C, workers created more openings in the nest thatch as the internal nest temperature goes up as a method of temperature regulation for the colony. The workers will close openings in the nest thatch as the air humidity surrounding the nest decreases to reduce water loss for the colony.

Studies using isoenzyme systems MDH, a-GPDH, and AMY show the occurrence of monogyny and polygyny associated or not with polyandry, which indicates that the social organization is colony-specific. The polygyny and polyandry observed are likely to be responsible for the great genotypic diversity of the species colonies. The average inbreeding coefficient per colony is higher in Acromyrmex striatus than in Acromyrmex heyeri, which may reflect the different patterns of production of sexual individuals and nuptial flight of those two species.

Synonyms

  • Acromyrmex gaudens Fowler, 1988
  • Acromyrmex lillensis Fowler, 1988
  • Moellerius heyeri Forel, 1899
gollark: `Maybe` is a nice monad.
gollark: All the side effects execute on one laptop in a basement in Glasgow.
gollark: I mean, you can have it via `bind`, as long as you're returning an `IO` afterward.
gollark: You aren't allowed to get an `a` from an `IO a`, for instance.
gollark: It's implemented that way.

See also

References

  1. "Species: Acromyrmex heyeri". AntWeb. 2010-06-30. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2010-08-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.