@article{86d9867749d444de9fd0d1527511ccbc,
title = "Behavioral ecology and natural history of Blepharidatta brasiliensis (Formicidae, Blepharidattini)",
abstract = "Fungus-growing ants (Attini, Formicidae) originated about 45-65 million years ago when forging a mutualistic association with basidiomycete fungi (Lepiotaceae). Here we use information on the biology of the non-leafcutting fungus-growing ants and their close relatives in the genus Blepharidatta to evaluate hypotheses for the evolutionary origin of fungus-growing behavior in attine ants. Observations on the natural history, ecology, and behavior of the Amazonian species Blepharidatta brasiliensis are reported here for the first time. Like most attine species, B. brasiliensis and the great majority of species in the tribe Blepharidattini are inhabitants of moist tropical rainforest, suggesting a rainforest habitat also for the ancestral attine ant. The ancestral attine was probably a leaf litter dweller, building small to medium sized nests (e.g., 20-200 workers) either between leaves in the litter or in decaying wood on the rainforest floor.",
keywords = "Attini, Colony demography, Fungivory, Nearest neighbor analysis, Nest architecture",
author = "C. Rabeling and M. Verhaagh and Mueller, {U. G.}",
note = "Funding Information: Research at the experimental field site of the Centro de Pesquisa Agro-florestal da Amaz{\^o}nia Ocidental da Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agro-pecu{\'a}ria (EMBRAPA) was conducted under SHIFT Project ENV 52-2 (collaboration between EMBRAPA Manaus and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe) and funded by the Bundesministerium f{\"u}r Bil-dung und Forschung BMBF, and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-mento Cient{\'i}fico e Tecnol{\'o}gico CNPq (BMBF 01LT0014 / CNPq 690018/00-2). CR and MV would like to thank the CNPq and the Insti-tuto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente dos Recursos Naturais Renov{\'a}veis (IBAMA) for permission to conduct fieldwork in Brazil; BMBF and CNPq for funding; Marcos Garcia from EMBRAPA Amaz{\^o}nia Ocidental for excellent collaboration and logistic support in Manaus. UGM would like to thank the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Amaz{\^o}nicas (INPA), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient{\'i}fico e Tecnol{\'o}gico (CNPq), and the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente dos Recursos Naturais Renov{\'a}veis (IBAMA) (Licen{\c c}a 009/00-DIFAS, 02001.004380/99-90AC) for permission to conduct field work in Brazil; NSF for funding field research (NSF-IRCEB award DEB-0110073; NSF-CAREER award DEB-9983879). C. Roberto F. Brand{\~a}o, Heraldo Vasconcelos and Ted Schultz provided invaluable logistical support for research in Brazil. We thank Mike Ryan, Matthew Leibold, Pupating Eufinger and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this manuscript.",
year = "2006",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1007/s00040-006-0872-y",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "53",
pages = "300--306",
journal = "Insectes Sociaux",
issn = "0020-1812",
publisher = "Birkhauser Verlag Basel",
number = "3",
}