Plant–Derived Products for Leaf–Cutting Ants Control

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Abstract

Leaf-cutting ants of the genera Atta sp. Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Acromyr‐ mex sp. Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are among the best known species of the family Formicidae in the New World, mainly due to their behaviour of cutting live plants to grow the symbiotic fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Moller) Singer (Agaricales: Agaricaceae) [1] (Figure 1). This interaction, which emerged more than 50 million years ago [2] has evolved to such a complex level that the ants and fungi cannot survive separately; they live in symbiosis. The fungus supplies the ants with nutrients obtained from metabolising plant materials that can be easily assimilated. In exchange, its environment is highly protected by the ants, which remove contaminants and secrete antibiotics from their metapleural glands [3, 4].

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