Some Tetraponera ants (Formicidae, Pseudomyrmecinae) subsist almost entirely on amino acid deficient honeydew secretions of pseudococcids and harbour a dense aggregation of bacterial symbionts in a unique pouch-shaped organ at the junction of the midgut and the intestine. The organ is surrounded by a network of intruding tracheae and Malpighian tubules, suggesting that these bacteria are involv...

Coelomera lanio (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is the most important defoliator of Cecropia trees. Natural enemies of C. lanio collected in the region of Viçosa, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil were identified on field observations in a forest fragment and on laboratory analyses. Individuals of C. lanio were not found on Cecropia pachystachya trees colonized by Azteca mülleri (Hymenoptera: Formicida...

Limited information exists on the extent of genetic variation of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from undisturbed forest habitats in the United States. We conducted a molecular genetics study involving DNA sequencing of a portion of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I gene to determine the extent of genetic variation of ants from the Arkansas Ozark-St. Francis National Forest (OSFNF). For...

Rawdhat Khorim, a densely vegetated alluvial basin supporting a distinctive floral community in the hyper-arid desert of central Saudi Arabia, is one of the most important protected nature sanctuaries of the country. The ant fauna (Formicidae) of Rawdhat Khorim was sampled and 14 species, including one new species were collected using a variety of sampling methods. The new species, Tetramorium ...

The seasonality of litter insect abundance and its relationship with rainfall was analyzed in a wet evergreen forest on the windward side of south Western Ghats. Monthly litter samples were collected using Berlese funnels during 4 seasons of a year: southwest monsoon season June-August), northeast monsoon season (September-November), summer (March -May) and pre-summer season (December-February)...

Cocos Island, Costa Rica is a 24-square kilometer volcanic island in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, located approximately 480 kilometers from the mainland. Despite its biogeographic significance, much of the entomofauna have not been systematically surveyed. A detailed survey of the ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) fauna of this island was conducted over a three-week period. The results sugge...

The article presents a comprehensive list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Peru. Distribution data for 592 valid names of species-group taxa in 76 genera and 12 subfamilies were collected through a bibliographical review. The most diverse subfamilies in terms of species richness are Myrmicinae (273 species/subspecies), Formicinae (86 species/subspecies) and Ponerinae (71 species/subspec...

Molecular methods have substantially advanced our knowledge about ant systematics in the past few years. Here, we infer the molecular phylogeny of sand dune ants of the genus Mycetophylax, Emery 1913 (Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Attini) using 730 base pairs of DNA sequences of the two nuclear genes longwave rhodopsin and wingless. Our analyses indicate that Mycetophylax is monophyletic, as suggeste...

Themale ofCaenocholax fenyesi Pierce (Strepsiptera) is widespread in South America, but no host records are known as the specimens examinedwere free-livingmales that came into traps. In southernUSAC. fenyesiwas found toparasitize the red importedÞreant,SolenopsiswagneriSantschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). We found a nest of the carpenter ant, Camponotus planatus Roger, in Veracruz, Mexico to be ...