Abstract
Atta mexicana is a polyphagous insect that can exploit a wide range of plant species to cultivate its main food source, the symbiotic fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus. In the present study, we evaluated the foraging rate of A. mexicana workers among leaves of three favored and three rejected plant species under laboratory conditions. In addition, we conducted a phytochemical characterization of leaves of these six plant species. Ants preferred leaf discs of Rosa × alba, Trema micrantha and Styrax glabrescens, but rejected those of Coffea arabica, Citrus reticulata and Psidium guajava. In a second behavioral experiment using plant extracts, the results suggest that in the case of C. reticulata, rejection was not due chemical composition, but may have been due to different foliar attributes that could modulate the ant’s foraging preferences in this species. Alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, and tannins were present at different concentrations in all six plant species. Furthermore, C. arabica leaves presented significantly higher concentrations of alkaloids and this species, together with P. guajava, exhibited the highest concentration of phenols. Rejected plant species showed high concentrations of chlorogenic acid, (−)-epicatechin, quercetin-3, 4-di-O-glucoside (in C. arabica); shikimic acid, ellagic acid and (−)-epicatechin (in P. guajava), and scopoletin (in C. reticulata). Some of the identified compounds have been shown to possess antifungal effects and/or to dissuade leaf-cutter ants from defoliation. We discuss the likely implications on foraging on such plant species by A. mexicana, and on the growth of its symbiotic fungus.
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Acknowledgements
Infante-Rodríguez D. A. acknowledges the fellowship granted by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CVU 409930) and the Doctoral Program of the Instituto de Ecología, A.C (INECOL). We thank the “Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación” (SAGARPA) for the financial support to the Laboratory of Natural Products Chemistry, Department of Advanced Molecular Studies of the INECOL for the development of the analytical method by LC–ESI–MS–MS for plant phenolic compounds identification (Project SAGARPA-INECOL 80056). We thank Dr. Trevor Williams for the revision of the manuscript. Thanks to Luis Javier Fuentes Jacques and Renato Portela Salomaõ for helpful suggestions and critical comments on the manuscript. Finally, we thank Dr. Diana Sánchez Rangel and Dr. Randy Ortiz Castro for the access to their laboratory facilities; Dora Luz Martínez Tlapa, Javier Tolome Romero, Ariadna Martínez Virués, Daniela Cela Cadena, Ofelia Ferrera Rodríguez, and José Benjamín Rodríguez Haas for their technical assistance at laboratory.
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Infante-Rodríguez, D.A., Monribot-Villanueva, J.L., Mehltreter, K. et al. Phytochemical characteristics of leaves determine foraging rate of the leaf-cutting ant Atta mexicana (Smith) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Chemoecology 30, 147–159 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-020-00306-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-020-00306-4