Dinoponera australis

Dinoponera australis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ponerinae
Tribe: Ponerini
Genus: Dinoponera
Species: D. australis
Binomial name
Dinoponera australis
Emery, 1901

Dinoponera australis is a species of ant notable for its lack of distinct queen caste. Studies have shown that fat storage in this species is related to the division of labour in the colony and non-reproductive individuals are characterized with a lower lipid count than reproductives.[1]

Subspecies

Distribution

Dinoponera australis has the widest known range of the Dinoponera. This species is found in the department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia, southern Brazil in the states of Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, eastern Paraguay in the departments of Itapúa, Alto Paraná and Guairá, as well as the province of Misiones in Argentina.[3]

Polyploidization

Organ-specific patterns of endopolyploidy (from x2 to x64) in Dinoponera australis

Dinoponera australis has been found to exhibit marked differences in the degree of polyploidy across its tissues, ranging from 2 to 64 copies of the nuclear genome.[4]

References

  1. Chris R. Smith, Andrew V. Suarez, Neil D. Tsutsui, Sarah E. Wittman, Benjamin Edmonds, Alex Freauff, Chadwick V. Tillberg (2011). "Nutritional asymmetries are related to division of labor in a queenless ant". PLoS ONE 6 (8): e24011. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024011. PMC 3160331. PMID 21886914.
  2. "Dinoponera australis subspecis Roger, 1861". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  3. Lenhart, Dash & MacKay 2013, p. 145
  4. Scholes, D.; Suarez, A.; Smith, A.; Johnston, S.; Paige, K. (2014). "Organ-specific patterns of endopolyploidy in the giant ant Dinoponera australis". Journal of Hymenoptera Research 37: 113. doi:10.3897/jhr.37.6824.
  • Lenhart, P.; Dash, S. T.; MacKay, W. P. (2013), "A revision of the giant Amazonian ants of the genus Dinoponera (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)", Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 119–164, doi:10.3897/JHR.31.4335
  • This article incorporates text from a scholarly publication published under a copyright license that allows anyone to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the materials in any form for any purpose: Lenhart, P.; Dash, S. T.; MacKay, W. P. (2013), "A revision of the giant Amazonian ants of the genus Dinoponera (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)", Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 119–164, doi:10.3897/JHR.31.4335 Please check the source for the exact licensing terms.

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