TWO NEW SPECIES OF GNAMPTOGENYS, AND AN ACCOUNT OF MILLIPEDE PREDATION BY ONE OF THEM

WILLIAM L. BROWN

《Psyche: A Journal of Entomology》 1992卷 (1992/12) Pp. 275-289

https://doi.org/10.1155/1992/59431

摘要

Gnamptogenys lineolata from Republica Dominicana and G ingeborgae from Cis-Andean Colombia are described as new. The latter species was found on one occasion associated with the body rings of a small millipede, and observations of this ant in a laboratory artificial nest in the U. S. showed that it would hunt, kill, and provision its nest with a local polydesmid defended by a hydrogen cyanide-benzaldehyde-phenol allomone combination, but rejected julid quinone-defended millipedes. The contrasting behavior of G. ingeborgae with these two prey taxa is described, and a crude substitution experiment suggests that the cyanide system, perhaps acting through it biochemical concomitants, serves as the major kairomone directing this ant's hunting behavior.