Sociometria e comportamento de rainhas de saúva (Atta sexdens linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) mantidas em laboratório

Abstract

Knowing both biology and behavior of newly-mated founding ant queens may be extremely useful for understanding the evolutionary adaptations experienced by many social insect societies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of weight loss of A. sexdens founding queens on the mortality and on the production of eggs, larvae, pupae and workers, during both the founding and ergonomic periods, as well as to describe the behavior repertoire performed by the queens. Individual queen weight and number of eggs, larvae, pupae and workers per colony were taken weekly. Laboratory conditions were kept in 25 ± 5°C, 70 to 80 % of relative umidity and 12 hour fotoperiod. By the end of 168 days, mortality had reached 95,7% of the young queens, mainly in the pre-incubation phase (58,3% of mortality). On average, newly-mated queens weighed 0,7 ± 0,05g after the nuptial flight, losing, on average, 22,5% of weight during the founding period, and 44,7% in the ergonomic period. On average, the pre-incubation, incubation, larval and pupal phases lasted, respectively, 3, 26, 23 and 21 days. The relative frequencies of reproductive eggs, larvae and pupae in the founding period were significantly different from the ergonomic period. Forty-nine behavioral acts were identified and they could be distributed into seven categories, according to their seemingly deducible biological function. The newly-mated queens were found to be comparatively more active during the founding period, in relation to the ergonomic period. Contrary to what one could expect for Attini queens with claustral foundation, the most frequent behaviors registered for A. sexdens queens in this study were those related not to the care with the offspring or to the simbiont fungus, but rather to the self-grooming. This result is a strong indication that self-grooming may function as preventing colony contamination by potential parasites, having been possibly played an important role in the establishment of the obligatory ant-fungus mutualism. Data obtained from the conclusion of this study can be used in comparative studies among ant species, eventually helping in the understanding of their evolutionary processes.