Nest Turrets of Acromyrmex Grass-Cutting Ants: Micromorphology Reveals Building Techniques and Construction Dynamics
1
Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, CP C1428EHA, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires B1657, Argentina
2
Unidad de Entomología, Departamento de Protección Vegetal, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de la República, Av. E. Garzón 780, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay
3
Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2020, 11(2), 140; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11020140
Received: 22 January 2020
/
Revised: 14 February 2020
/
Accepted: 21 February 2020
/
Published: 24 February 2020
Acromyrmex fracticornis grass-cutting ants construct conspicuous chimney-shaped nest turrets made of intermeshed grass fragments. We asked whether turrets are constructed by merely piling up nearby materials around the entrance, or whether ants incorporate different materials as the turret develops. By removing the original nest turrets and following their rebuilding process over three consecutive days, age-dependent changes in wall morphology and inner lining fabrics were characterized. Micromorphological descriptions based on thin sections of turret walls revealed the building behaviors involved. Ants started by collecting nearby twigs and dry grass fragments that are piled up around the nest entrance. Several large fragments held the structure like beams. As a net-like structure grew, soil pellets were placed in between the intermeshed plant fragments from the turret base to the top, reinforcing the structure. Concomitantly, the turret inner wall was lined with soil pellets, starting from the base. Therefore, the consolidation of the turret occurred both over time and from its base upwards. It is argued that nest turrets do not simply arise by the arbitrary deposition of nearby materials, and that workers selectively incorporate large materials at the beginning, and respond to the developing structure by reinforcing the intermeshed plant fragments over time.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
building behavior; Acromyrmex fracticornis; leaf-cutting ants; collective pattern; architecture; self-organization; microstructure; material composition; thin sections
▼
Show Figures
Graphical abstract
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 212 KiB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Cosarinsky, M.I.; Römer, D.; Roces, F. Nest Turrets of Acromyrmex Grass-Cutting Ants: Micromorphology Reveals Building Techniques and Construction Dynamics. Insects 2020, 11, 140. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11020140
AMA Style
Cosarinsky MI, Römer D, Roces F. Nest Turrets of Acromyrmex Grass-Cutting Ants: Micromorphology Reveals Building Techniques and Construction Dynamics. Insects. 2020; 11(2):140. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11020140
Chicago/Turabian StyleCosarinsky, Marcela I., Daniela Römer, and Flavio Roces. 2020. "Nest Turrets of Acromyrmex Grass-Cutting Ants: Micromorphology Reveals Building Techniques and Construction Dynamics" Insects 11, no. 2: 140. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11020140
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
