Atta sexdens
| Literature database |
|---|
| 99 articles sorted by: |
| • year (descending) |
| • research topics |
| • countries/regions |
| • host plants |
| • list of natural enemies |
Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758)
This leaf-cutter ant is common in some parts of South America. It damages plants by cutting out pieces of leaves and carrying them to its nest, to be used as substrate to grow a certain type of fungus, the actual food of the ant. Various types of plants are attacked, including grasses, forest trees and crops (e.g. see Giesel et al., 2013). The damage can result in crop losses or growth reduction in plantation trees like eucalypts (Zanetti et al., 2000).
Nests of A. sexdens include the queen, soldiers and several kinds of workers, specialised in tasks like foraging and transporting the leaf pieces to the nests, converting the leaf pieces into a suitable substrate for the fungus gardens, and tending the fungus gardens. These casts differ in size and other morphological features. For example, the soldiers have a head width of 3 mm, while workers attending to the fungus gardens have a head width of only 1 mm. The latter caste also takes care of feeding and cleaning the brood inside the fungus gardens. Several subspecies have been described for Atta sexdens.
| Vernacular names | |
|---|---|
| • Português: | saúva-do-norte saúva-sulina saúva-limão |
- Other images of Atta sexdens (Wikimedia Commons - click to enlarge)
head
head
head
