IDENTIFICATION OF A NOVEL PLANT-DERIVED ATTRACTANT FOR ACROMYRMEX LOBICORNIS LEAF-CUTTING ANTS

ALMA, ANDREA MARINA; FERNANDEZ PATRICIA CARINA; PERRI, DAIANA VANESA; BUTELER, MICAELA

ANAIS DA ACADEMIA BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS.

ACAD BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS

Lugar: Rio de Janeiro; Año: 2019

0001-3765

Leaf-cutting ants (LCA) belonging to the genera Atta and Acromyrmex (OrderHymenoptera, Family Formicidae, Tribe Attini) (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990) arerecognized as key herbivores and ecosystem engineers (Farji-Brener and Werenkraut2015), but also cause large economic losses in numerous crops (Montoya-Lerma et al.2012). The most commonly used control strategy to manage this pest is the use of toxicbaits, which typically consist of a citrus pulp attractant with soybean oil, and sulfluramid orfipronil as the main compounds currently under large-scale use (dos Santos et al. 2017).However, citrus extracts are not suitable for all species of LCA (Lima et al. 2003), andgiven their cognitive abilities, LCA can learn to avoid toxic baits by associating theattractant with the toxic compound in the bait (North et al. 1999). In such cases the workersstop the harvesting initially accepted resources, a phenomenon known as `delayedavoidance´, which can be prevented by changing the attractant in which the pesticide is