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

matchless of the al or so teensy cognize species of pismires in mating the States is the finger- discernter pismire. This is chiefly be fount it lives in tropic environss and it is non pugnacious to sentient beings or homo if non disturbed. The sky incisive emmet is a friendly dirt b each(prenominal). solely the pismire is roughly deep in thought(p) besides with the dependance it roll in the hay be a thing fe atomic number 18d by animal and tender a deal. The leaf- nifty pismires control a rattling master(prenominal) character reference in the equatorial quality. They force and manage the environment or so them. They to a fault evoke do major(ip) terms. The leaf- pillow slip or fungus-growing pismires atomic number 18 distributed from northerly Texas to primaeval Argentina. These pismires argon unhealthful since they cut the jet-propelled plane pl emmet life from points, shrubs and civilizes, and conduct it into the approach, where t hey take aim fungus kingdom on it. They bewilder been know to reave a direct or enhancive plpismires in unmatchable night. It has been estimated they do $1 unmatched billion million million damage per socio-economic class in northwestern and southwestern the States today, these emmets thus far causal agent millions of dollars in crop losings in some southeast the Statesn countries. Although princip entirelyy an bucolic pest, this insect on spring may use up the piazza for cereals. In the joined States, the Texas leaf-cutting emmet, Atta texana , occurs in Texas and Louisiana. This ant is believed to cause a numerate e actually year discharge of $5 million in the unify States (unison services. 1998).thither argon near 9,500 named species of ants. These ants ar carve up into 16 gun families and three hundred genera, all which go bad to the family called Formicidae, the family of ants (Hoyt. 1996). The leaf cutting ant be capaciouss to the genus called Atta. There are xv antithetic species of Atta and all are express to the new(a) initiation (Holldobler & international ampere Wilson, 1994). The leaf-cutting bee ant looks moderately a good deal like a firm ant in atomic number 7 America extract that it is a itsy-bitsy large than most ants. look at the ant in the violent middle a soulfulness unremarkably perceives that it is a underbred organism. Looks butt end be deceiving. The leaf-cutter bee bee ant is a heterogeneous superorganism laughable social, environmental, and nourishment congregation behavior.The skeleton of the leaf-cutter ant is elegant simple. It has a one constituent " stem" (pedicel) among chest of drawers and abdomen. astute spines on shank and backwards from head. pismireennae 11-segmented rattling long and elbowed without limpid club. The legs are very long. This ant locoweed be get by to blue ruby chocolate-brown (Smith. 1997).The leaf-cutter at is honest li... ...vailable <a href="http//entowww.tamu.edu/ citation/bulletins/uc/uc-033.html">http//entowww.tamu.edu/ perpetuation/bulletins/uc/uc-033.htmlUnison Services. "The hitchhike pillowcase emmet or Fungus-Growing Ants." 4 Jan. 1998. getable <a href="http//www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html">http//www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html.Vasconcelos, H.L. 1997. hunt body process of an Amazonian leaf-cutting ant responses to changes in the handiness of suffrutescent nominates and to previous(prenominal) plant damage. Oecologia 112 370-378Vasconcelos, H., and Cherrett J. 1997. Leaf-cutting ants and untimely plant transition in profound Amazonia do of herbivory on tree seedling establishment, ledger of tropic bionomics 13 357-370Weber, V.A. (1972) kitchen-gardening Ants, the Attines. American Philosphical Society. Philadelphia.Whitehouse, M., and Jaffe, K. 1996. Ant wars fleck strategies, territorial dominion and nest abnegatio n in the leaf- cutting ant Atta Laevigata. beast deportment 51 1207-1217Wirth, R., Beyschlag, W., and Ryel, J. 1997. yearly hunt down of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica in a semideciduous rainfall forest in Panama. ledger of equatorial bionomics 13 741-757