| Registro completo |
| Provedor de dados: |
Ciência Rural
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| País: |
Brazil
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| Título: |
Sexual castes of Trachymyrmex fuscus (Formicidae: Attini) performing worker tasks
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| Autores: |
Araújo,Márcio da Silva
Oliveira,João Paulo Ribeiro
Souza,Danival José de
Oliveira,Marco Antônio
Jesus,Flávio Gonçalves de
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| Data: |
2016-02-01
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| Ano: |
2016
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| Palavras-chave: |
Fungus-growing ant
Foraging activity
Division of labour
Polymorphism
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| Resumo: |
ABSTRACT: The main of this research was to report an atypical foraging behavior in a colony of Trachymyrmex fuscus, situated in "Cerrado" (savanna ecoregion of Goiás, Brazil). The colony foraging activity was performed only by sexual caste. Comparison of the foraging rhythm of this colony with another of the same specie where foraging was performed only by worker caste, showed that working time hours were very similar. After observations on the foraging behavior, both colonies were excavated in order to characterize them (nest size, population composition and estimating of the symbiotic fungus volume). Besides the foraging activity performed only by sexual females, other important observations were highlighted in that colony: low number of workers, presence of worker larvae and pupae (45 and 43 respectively) and apparently normal growth of the symbiotic fungus. Our hypothesis is that sexual females were in charge of the entire colony maintenance. This could be a strategy of colony survival when the worker caste is reduced.
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| Tipo: |
Info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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| Idioma: |
Inglês
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| Identificador: |
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782016000200199
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| Editor: |
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
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| Relação: |
10.1590/0103-8478cr20150189
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| Formato: |
text/html
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| Fonte: |
Ciência Rural v.46 n.2 2016
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| Direitos: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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