ISSN 1519-6984 (Print) ISSN 1678-4375 (Online) THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON NEOTROPICAL BIOLOGY THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENT Notes and Comments Survey of leaf-cutting ant species in the central region of the state of Tocantins, Brazil Levantamento de espécies de formigas-cortadeiras na região central do estado do Tocantins, Brasil K. F. S. Colombaria , R. T. Fujiharab* , D. R. Souza-Campanac , C. T. Wazemac and E. S. Souzaa aUniversidade Estadual do Tocantins – Unitins, Palmas, TO, Brasil bUniversidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar, Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Departamento de Ciências da Natureza, Matemática e Educação, Araras, SP, Brasil cUniversidade de Mogi das Cruzes – UMC, Núcleo de Ciências Ambientais, Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brasil Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) are eusocial insects roads, distributed throughout the whole central region of classified into 17 extant subfamilies, 39 extant tribes, and the state. At each collection site, in a 500 m long by 50 m about 17,000 extant species (AntWeb, 2021). They play wide strip, marked at random, at least five exemplars key roles in different habitats, such as urban and rural of the ants (soldiers or foragers) found on the nests or areas (Mbenoun Masse et al., 2017; Souza-Campana et al., on the foraging trails were collected (Forti et al., 2020). 2020), forests (Wilkie et al., 2010), and caves (Dáttilo et al., The collections were carried out from September 2019 to 2012), interacting with many organisms (Sebastiani et al., January 2020 (fortnightly) in two periods: from 5:00 am 2017), acting as ecosystem engineers (Toro et al., 2012; to 10:00 am, and 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Martins et al., 2020), and, due to their high diversity and The leaf-cutting ants were identified following abundance, as reliable biological indicators (Choe, 2012; taxonomic key from Fowler et al. (1993), and comparing Santos-Silva et al., 2016). specimens with the myrmecological collection of the The tribe Attini comprises 48 extant genera and Laboratório de Mirmecologia do Alto Tietê – LAMAT/ 2,688 extant species (Bolton, 2021), and among them, Atta Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brazil; the Fabricius, 1804, Acromyrmex Mayr, 1865, and Amoimyrmex voucher specimens were deposited at the same collection. Cristiano et al., 2020 - popularly named leaf-cutting ants The species were named according to AntWeb (2021) and - are important pests of forest plantations, agriculture, Bolton (2021). and livestock in several regions of Brazil and America Seven species and morphospecies of leaf-cutting (Britto et al., 2016). They represent together 53 species and ants were recorded in the central region of the state of 26 subspecies, being 17 species and one subspecies of genus Tocantins, Brazil (Figures 1 and 2; Supplementary Material): Atta, 33 species and 22 subspecies of genus Acromyrmex, Acromyrmex coronatus (Fabricius, 1804), Acromyrmex heyeri and three species of genus Amoimyrmex (Bolton, 2021). (Forel, 1899), Atta laevigata (Smith, 1858), Acromyrmex The ant fauna of some Brazilian states, as Tocantins, rugosus (Smith, 1858), Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758), has remained relatively understudied compared to Acromyrmex aff. balzani (Emery, 1890), Acromyrmex aff. other Brazilian states of similar size (Prado et al., 2019; landolti (Forel, 1885). Arruda et al., 2020; Jory and Feitosa, 2020), as well as the We observed that there was no predominance of species, species of leaf-cutting ants (see, e.g., Dáttilo et al., 2010; which were spatially distributed in the Metropolitan Jaime, 2010; Guénard et al., 2017). The distribution data of Region of Palmas. The presence of A. laevigata is previously leaf-cutting ants in Brazil is dispersed and the taxonomy known in Porto Nacional, in the central region of the state is not updated (Delabie et al., 2011), and a regional list of Tocantins (see Bragança and Medeiros, 2006), and A. is an important tool for a better understanding of this sexdens was already recorded in Gurupi, in the south distribution (Vicente et al., 2018; Arruda et al., 2020). region of the state of Tocantins (see Silva and Souza, 2014; Here, we present a survey of the species of leaf-cutting Dornelas et al., 2016). The occurrence of both species was ants in the central region of the state of Tocantins, Brazil. already expected in our study because they have a wide The survey was carried out in the Metropolitan Region distribution across Brazil (Forti and Boaretto, 1997). of Palmas (capital of Tocantins), which corresponds The occurrence of Ac. balzani is also known in the south to 16 municipalities according to the FNEM (2019) region of the state of Tocantins, in the municipality of classification (Figures 1 and 2; Supplementary Material). Talismã (see Jaime, 2010); however, we present the first We selected one hundred collection sites close to the main record of Ac. coronatus, Ac. heyeri and Ac. rugosus in the *e-mail: [email protected] Received: February 14, 2021 – Accepted: April 6, 2021 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 2023, vol. 83, e248727 | https://doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.248727 1/6 Colombari, K.F.S. et al. state of Tocantins, as well as a potential new record of Ac. heyeri had the closest record in Piauí. Acromyrmex Ac. aff. landolti. These last four Acromyrmex species have landolti and Ac. rugosus had records in Bahia, Goiás, Mato been recorded in neighboring states, where Ac. coronatus Grosso, Maranhão, and Piauí (Guénard et al., 2017; Jory had records in Bahia, Goiás, Mato Grosso, and Pará, and and Feitosa, 2020). Figure 1. Distribution map of Atta sexdens and Acromyrmex rugosus in the central region of the state of Tocantins, Brazil. 2/6 Brazilian Journal of Biology, 2023, vol. 83, e248727 Leaf-cutting ants in Tocantins The five Acromyrmex species recorded in this study are occurrence of Ac. coronatus in our survey may be related to known for their vast geographic distribution (see Forti and its diversified form of nesting, which can occur on trees, on Boaretto, 1997; Silva Júnior et al., 2013). However, the low the ground surface, inside hollow wood, and on rural and Figure 2. Distribution map of Acromyrmex coronatus, Acromyrmex heyeri, Atta laevigata, Acromyrmex aff. balzani and Acromyrmex aff. landolti in the central region of the state of Tocantins, Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 2023, vol. 83, e248727 3/6 Colombari, K.F.S. et al. urban buildings (Forti et al., 2011). Acromyrmex balzani, DORNELAS, A.S.P., SARMENTO, R.A., DOS SANTOS, G.R., NASCIMENTO, Ac. heyeri, and Ac. landolti are specialized in grass cutting M.O. and DE SOUZA, D.J., 2016. Fungos filamentosos associados and known for the damages caused to pastures (Forti às espécies Atta sexdens (Linnaeus) e Atta laevigata (F. Smith) and Boaretto, 1997; Silva Júnior et al., 2013). Acromyrmex (Hymenoptera: formicidae). EntomoBrasilis, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 26-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v9i1.528. rugosus can be found in large areas planted with Eucalyptus, causing severe damage (Britto et al., 2016). FORTI, L.C. and BOARETTO, M.A.C., 1997. Formigas cortadeiras: Although further research is necessary to ensure that biologia, ecologia, danos e controle. Botucatu: Universidade Estadual Paulista, 61 p. the number of species is sufficiently represented (Souza- Campana et al., 2020), and to confirm the new record of FORTI, L.C., MOREIRA, A.A., ANDRADE, A.P., CASTELLANI, M.A. Ac. aff. landolti, our pioneering survey of leaf-cutting ants and CALDATO, N., 2011. Nidificação e arquitetura de ninhos Formigas- in the state of Tocantins will be important for monitoring de formigas-cortadeiras. In: T.M.C. DELLA LUCIA, ed. cortadeiras: da bioecologia ao manejo. Viçosa: Ed. UFV, pp. these populations, which need to be more sampled and 102-125. studied, and will be able to contribute to decision-making for biodiversity conservation programs and integrated FORTI, L.C., RANDO, J.S., CAMARGO, R.S., MOREIRA, A.A., CASTELLANI, M.A., LEITE, S.A., SOUSA, K.K.A. and CALDATO, N., 2020. pest management. Occurrence of leaf-cutting and grass-cutting ants of the genus Atta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in geographic regions of Brazil. Sociobiology, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 514-525. http://dx.doi. Acknowledgements org/10.13102/sociobiology.v67i4.5741. We would like to acknowledge CNPq for the scholarship FÓRUM NACIONAL DE ENTIDADES METROPOLITANAS – FNEM, granted to the first author. 2019 [viewed 28 January 2021]. Região metropolitana de Palmas [online]. Available from: https://fnembrasil.org/regiao- metropolitana-de-palmas-to/ FOWLER, H.G., DELLA-LUCIA, T.M.C. and MOREIRA, D.D.O., 1993. References Posição taxonômica das formigas cortadeiras. In: T.M.C. DELLA ANTWEB, 2021 [viewed 11 February 2021]. California Academy LUCIA, ed. As formigas cortadeiras. Viçosa: Editora Folha de of Science [online]. Available from: https://www.antweb.org Viçosa, pp. 4-25. ARRUDA, F., PESQUERO, M., PESQUERO, M. and SANTOS, J., 2020. 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