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Army ant middens – Home and nursery of a diverse beetle fauna

Beeren, Christoph von ; Pohl, Sebastian ; Fikáček, Martin ; Kleinfelder, Stephan ; Tishechkin, Alexey K. ; Yamamoto, Shûhei ; Chani‐Posse, Mariana ; Żyła, Dagmara ; Tokareva, Alexandra ; Maruyama, Munetoshi ; Hall, W. Eugene ; Sandoval, Liliana P. ; Kronauer, Daniel J. C. (2024)
Army ant middens – Home and nursery of a diverse beetle fauna.
In: Ecology and Evolution, 2023, 13 (9)
doi: 10.26083/tuprints-00024706
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Item Type: Article
Type of entry: Secondary publication
Title: Army ant middens – Home and nursery of a diverse beetle fauna
Language: English
Date: 19 January 2024
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Year of primary publication: 2023
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Journal or Publication Title: Ecology and Evolution
Volume of the journal: 13
Issue Number: 9
Collation: 18 Seiten
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00024706
Corresponding Links:
Origin: Secondary publication DeepGreen
Abstract:

Army ants provide nourishment to a large variety of animals. This includes birds that feed on animals flushed out by army ant raids, symbiotic arthropods that consume the ants' prey or their brood, and other arthropods that scavenge on army ant refuse deposits. The latter have not received much attention, and the few published studies lack detailed species identifications. Here we provide a first systematic inventory of the beetle fauna associated with refuse deposits of Eciton army ants, with a focus on Eciton burchellii. We collected 8364 adult beetles, 511 larvae, and 24 eggs from 34 deposits at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. We used a combination of DNA barcoding and morphology to identify a subset of 436 specimens to species level. The samples included several new species, and we here formally describe two water scavenger beetles (Hydrophilidae). Refuse deposits harbored a diverse beetle fauna. The identified subset consisted of 91 beetle species from 12 families, with rove beetles being the most abundant and diverse visitors. Of the 85 species found with E. burchellii, 50 species were collected from only one or two refuse deposits. Conversely, seven species were found in 10 or more refuse deposits, indicating a certain level of habitat specialization. We matched adults and immatures for 22 beetle species via DNA barcodes, demonstrating that army ant middens also serve as a beetle nursery. The present survey highlights the significant ecological function of army ants as promoters of biodiversity and their status as keystone species in tropical rainforests.

Uncontrolled Keywords: army ant, biodiversity, Coleoptera, DNA barcoding, scavenger, tropical rainforest
Identification Number: e10451
Status: Publisher's Version
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-247065
Classification DDC: 500 Science and mathematics > 570 Life sciences, biology
500 Science and mathematics > 590 Animals (zoology)
Divisions: 10 Department of Biology > Ecological Networks
Date Deposited: 19 Jan 2024 13:45
Last Modified: 06 Feb 2024 08:12
SWORD Depositor: Deep Green
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/24706
PPN: 515270407
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