TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dejean, A.
AU  - Delabie, J.H.
AU  - Corbara, B.
AU  - Azémar, F.
AU  - Groc, S.
AU  - Orivel, J.
AU  - Leponce, M.
PY  - 2012//
TI  - The ecology and feeding habits of the arboreal trap-jawed ant Daceton armigerum
T2  - PLoS ONE
JO  - PloS one
SP  - e37683
VL  - 7
IS  - 5
KW  - animal
KW  - ant
KW  - article
KW  - ecology
KW  - feeding behavior
KW  - Hemiptera
KW  - physiology
KW  - predation
KW  - Animals
KW  - Ants
KW  - Predatory Behavior
N2  - Here we show that Daceton armigerum, an arboreal myrmicine ant whose workers are equipped with hypertrophied trap-jaw mandibles, is characterized by a set of unexpected biological traits including colony size, aggressiveness, trophobiosis and hunting behavior. The size of one colony has been evaluated at ca. 952,000 individuals. Intra- and interspecific aggressiveness were tested and an equiprobable null model used to show how D. armigerum colonies react vis-à-vis other arboreal ant species with large colonies; it happens that D. armigerum can share trees with certain of these species. As they hunt by sight, workers occupy their hunting areas only during the daytime, but stay on chemical trails between nests at night so that the center of their home range is occupied 24 hours a day. Workers tend different Hemiptera taxa (i.e., Coccidae, Pseudococcidae, Membracidae and Aethalionidae). Through group-hunting, short-range recruitment and spread-eagling prey, workers can capture a wide range of prey (up to 94.12 times the mean weight of foraging workers).
SN  - 19326203 (Issn)
UR  - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84867597254&partnerID=40&md5=301c35c2415da43b58c8bc0afdf110cf
L1  - http://php.ecofog.gf/refbase/files/dejean/2012/443_Dejean_etal2012.pdf
N1  - Export Date: 2 November 2012; Source: Scopus; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037683; PubMed ID: 22737205; Language of Original Document: English; Correspondence Address: Dejean, A.email: alain.dejean@wanadoo.fr
ID  - Dejean_etal2012
ER  -