Leaf-cutter ants

It is conceivable that such rather unspecific modulatory signals obtain more specific significance in the communication process. A striking example is that of the leaf-cutter ant Atta cephalotes (24). 

The leaf cutter ant Atta cephalotes, which cultivates a fungus as food, produces compounds that increase the growth of the fungal food and compounds that block the germination of undesired fungal spores,... 

Malignant cell transformation. Smoke of cured leaf, administered to leaf-cutter ants at an undiluted concentration, was active on primary spermatocytes . ... 

Leaf cutter ants, abundant from Texas to Argentina are polyphagous herbivores, but will not attack several plants. The ant, Atta cephalotes, for example, does not feed on Lasianthaea fruticosa (Asteraceae). The active repellent substance has been demonstrated to be lasidiol angelate (8p. 

Mirex was first synthesized in 1946 but it was not introduced as a pesticide against hymenopterous insects, especially ants, until 1959 (Smith, 1991). Technical grade mirex consists of approximately 95% mirex and less than 2.5% chlordecone, mostly kepone (Eisler, 1985). Mirex is a stomach insecticide with little contact activity. The main use of mirex was against the imported fire ants in the south-eastern United States (WHO, 1984b). It has also been used to control leaf cutters in South America, harvester termites in South Africa, Western harvester ants in the United States, the pineapple mealy bug in Hawaii and it was proposed to have been used against yellow jacket wasps in the United States (WHO, 1995). Under the trade name of Dechlorane, mirex was used as a fire retardant in electronic components, fabrics, rubber, plastics and electrical goods (Eisler, 1985 WHO, 1995). 

Alarm pheromone in Aggregation pheromone leaf cutter ant in elm bark beetle... 

Between 1961 and 1975, about 400,000 kg of mirex were used in pesticidal formulations, of which approximately 250,000 kg were sold in the southeastern U.S. for control of native and imported fire ants (Solenopsis spp.) most of the rest was exported to Brazil for use in fire ant control in that country. Mirex was also used to control big-headed ant populations in Hawaiian pineapple fields, Australian termites. South American leaf cutter ants. South African harvester termites, and, in the U.S., western harvester ants and yellow jackets. Chemical control measures for imported fire ants began in the southeastern U.S. during the 1950s with the use of heptachlor, chlordane, and dieldrin. The large mounds built by ants in cultivated fields were believed to interfere with mowing and harvesting operations, the vicious sting of the insects presented a hazard to workers... 

One of the most important developments in human civilization is the practice of sustainable agriculture. But humans were not the first to do this. Ants have been doing it for more than 50 million years. It has helped leaf-cutter ants become dominant herbivores and one of the most successful social insects. 

P-Ocimene (47) is a repellent to die leaf cutter ant Atta cephalotes in both field and laboratory experiments (Har-bome, 1987). Experiments with the aphid Cavariella aego-podii, which feeds on umbellifer species in summer, indicate that the aphid can be captured in traps baited with carvone (48), but are repelled by linalool (6) (Chapman et al., 1981 Harbome, 1987). Carvone occurs in the essential oils of several plants of the Apiaceae. 

Leaf cutter ants, abundant from Texas to Argentina, are polyphagous herbivores, but will not attack several plants. The ant, Atta cephalotes, for example, does not feed on Lasi-anthaea fruticosa (Asteraceae). The active repellent substance is lasidiol angelate (51) (Wiemer and Ales, 1981). Three of four other inhibitory compounds to ant feeding, nerolidol (7), caryophyllene epoxide (52), kolavenol (a diter-pene), and caiyophyllene (not active), either produced dramatic effects on the ants or the fungus cultivated by the ants (Howard et al., 1988). 

Schofield RMS, Nesson MH, Richardson KA. (2002) Tooth hatdness increases with zinc-content in mandibles of young adult leaf-cutter ants. Nat Wiss 89 579—583. 

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