Leaf-cutting Ants Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

One of the most small-minded known species of emmets in North the States is the tack-cutter emmet. This is mainly because it lives in tropical environments and it is not aggressive to animals or humans if not disturbed. The leaf cutting emmet is a social insect. Alone the ant is more or less helpless but with the colony it can be a intimacy feared by animal and human alike. The leaf-cutting ants have a very grand role in the tropical forest. They create and manipulate the environment approximately them. They also can do major damage. The leaf-cutting or fungus-growing ants are distributed from northerly Texas to fundamental Argentina. These ants are injurious since they cut the green vegetation from trees, shrubs and crops, and birth it into the nest, where they cultivate fungi on it. They have been known to denude a tree or ornamental plants in one night. It has been estimated they do $1 billion damage per year in North and South the States today, these ants still cause megs of dollars in crop losses in some South American countries. Although primarily an agricultural pest, this insect on critical point may invade the home for cereals. In the United States, the Texas leaf-cutting ant, Atta texana , occurs in Texas and Louisiana. This ant is believed to cause a total yearly loss of $5 million in the United States (unison services. 1998).There are about 9,500 named species of ants. These ants are divided into 16 sub families and 300 genera, all which belong to the family called Formicidae, the family of ants (Hoyt. 1996). The leaf cutting ant belongs to the genus called Atta. There are fifteen different species of Atta and all are particular(a) to the new world (Holldobler & Wilson, 1994). The leaf-cutter ant looks pretty frequently like a regular ant in North America except that it is a little bigger than most ants. Looking at the ant in the untrained eye a person commonly perceives that it is a primitive organism. Looks can be deceiving. T he leaf-cutter ant is a complex superorganism unique social, environmental, and food gathering behavior.The anatomy of the leaf-cutter ant is pretty simple. It has a one segment "waist" (pedicel) between dresser and abdomen. Sharp spines on waist and backward from head. Antennae 11-segmented very long and elbowed without different club. The legs are very long. This ant can be light to downhearted reddish brown (Smith. 1997).The leaf-cutter at is just li... ...vailable <a href="http//entowww.tamu.edu/ propagation/bulletins/uc/uc-033.html">http//entowww.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-033.htmlUnison Services. "The Leaf Cutting Ant or Fungus-Growing Ants." 4 Jan. 1998. visible(prenominal) <a href="http//www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html">http//www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html.Vasconcelos, H.L. 1997. Foraging activity of an Amazonian leaf-cutting ant responses to changes in the availability of dendroidal plants and to previous plant damage. Oecologia 112 370-378Vasconcelos, H., and Cherrett J. 1997. Leaf-cutting ants and early forest regeneration in central Amazonia effects of herbivory on tree seedling establishment, Journal of Tropical Ecology 13 357-370Weber, V.A. (1972) Gardening Ants, the Attines. American Philosphical Society. Philadelphia.Whitehouse, M., and Jaffe, K. 1996. Ant wars combat strategies, territory and nest defense in the leaf- cutting ant Atta Laevigata. Animal Behavior 51 1207-1217Wirth, R., Beyschlag, W., and Ryel, J. 1997. yearly foraging of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica in a semideciduous rain forest in Panama. Journal of Tropical Ecology 13 741-757