Diacamma

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Diacamma
Diacamma rugosum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ponerinae
Tribe: Ponerini
Genus: Diacamma
Mayr, 1862
Type species
Ponera rugosa
Bingham, 1903
Species

See text

Diversity
c. 26 species

Diacamma is a genus of queenless ants belonging to the subfamily Ponerinae.[1] It is distributed from India to Australia and contains about 26 species.

Biology

A queen caste does not exist in Diacamma. Unique to this genus, all workers emerge from cocoons with a pair of tiny innervated thoracic appendages ("gemmae") that are homologous with wings. Mutilation leads to a permanent change in lifetime trajectory, because workers lacking gemmae never mate. This is unlike other queenless ants where workers establish a dominance hierarchy to regulate reproduction. In Diacamma only one worker retains her gemmae in each colony, she is the gamergate (mated egglaying worker), and she bites off the gemmae of newly emerged workers. Mutilation causes the degeneration of the neuronal connections between the sensory hairs on the gemma's surface and the central nervous system, and this may explain the irreversibility of modifications in individual behaviour.[1]

Species

Diacamma species of India include:

  • Diacamma assamense Forel, 1897
  • Diacamma ceylonense Fmery, 1897
    • Diacamma ceylonense orbiculatum santschi, 1932
  • Diacamma cyaneiventre André, 1887
  • Diacamma geometricum viridipurpureum Emery, 1893
  • Diacamma indicum Santschi, 1920
  • Diacamma rugosum LeGuillou, 1842
    • Diacamma rugosum jerdoni Forel, 1903
    • Diacamma rugosum rothneyi Forel, 1900
    • Diacamma rugosum sikkimense Forel, 1903
  • Diacamma scalpratum Smith, 1858
  • Diacamma sculptum Jerdon, 1851
  • Diacamma sculpturata Smith, 1859
  • Diacamma vagans Smith, 1860
    • Diacamma vagans doveri Mukerjee, 1834

Other species include:

  • Diacamma australe Fabricius, 1775
  • Diacamma baguiense Chapman, 1925
  • Diacamma cupreum Smith, 1850
  • Diacamma holosericeum Roger, 1860
  • Diacamma intricatum Smith, 1857

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Genus: Diacamma". antweb.org. AntWeb. Retrieved 11 October 2013. 

External links

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