New ant species discovered from the stomach of a frog!

This article was originally posted at New ant species discovered from the stomach of a frog!

New species of ant


A new species of ant namely, Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri was discovered from the rainforests of Central and South America by a team led by Christian Rabeling, University of Rochester, New York.[1] The ant genus Lenomyrmex is a recently described one with species distributed from mid to high elevation rainforests of Central and South America. Including this new addition, the genus consists of just seven species, which are rarely collected.

The interesting fact is the place at which it was discovered. It was flushed out from the gut contents of an ant-eating dendrobatid poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica. Ant-eating frogs go for hunting in tiny and hard-to-access places. So these can be used as a tool to go where we can’t go. When capturing a wild frog and flushing their stomachs, the amphibians vomit whatever is in their bellies—revealing potential treasures, like the new ant.

The mystery ant


[caption id="attachment_908" align="alignleft" width="740"]Front view of worker of Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri showing forceps like mandibles Front view of worker of Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri showing forceps like mandibles[/caption]

Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri has been described from a single specimen of a dead worker ant collected from frog’s stomach. Scientists know almost knowing about their habitats and food habits. They have slender, elongate, and highly conspicuous mandibles with minute peg-like denticles. These amdibles appear as if they were forceps. These specialised mandibles points to specialized predatory habits. May be they use these mandibles to catch its prey.

Unfortunately, the feeding behavior of these cryptic ants was never observed. Also the prey organisms of Lenomyrmex are unknown too. Lenomyrmex appears to be a close relative of Daceton trap-jaw ants, which are both part of a monophyletic group of specialized predators.

Finally, the frog!


[caption id="attachment_909" align="alignleft" width="960"]Oophaga sylvatica, known also as diablitio Oophaga sylvatica, known also as diablitio[/caption]

Oophaga sylvatica, also known as diablitio is a poison frog of the family Dendrobatidae. It is mainly found in south western Colombia and north western Ecuador upto 1000m asl.[2] The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists O. sylvatica as Near Threatened.[3]

Poison frogs get their name from the presence of poisonous chemical substances frond in their skin and body. Most probably, these chemicals are formed from alkaloids found in the body of these ants they consume. Ants can be considered as mini chemical factories. Their signalling mechanisms rely mostly on chemicals we call as pheromones.

[cite]

References




1.

Christian R., Jeffrey S.C., Lauren A. O., Luis A. C. & Fernando F. (2016). – Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri: a new ant species discovered in the stomach of the dendrobatid poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser). ZooKeys, 618, 79–95.





2.

Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser, 1956) (2016). Amphibian Species of the World 6.0, an Online Reference. Available at: http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/Amphibia/Anura/Dendrobatidae/Dendrobatinae/Oophaga/Oophaga-sylvatica (accessed on 24 September 2016).





3.

Oophaga sylvatica (2016). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2016.2. Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/55203/0 (accessed on 24 September 2016).



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What makes poison dart frog resistant to their on poison?

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/sksq7 © Brian Gratwicke | CC BY 2.0 Contents 1 Poison Dart Frog 2 How is the toxin produced? 3 Physiology of the toxin 4 Why doesn’t the toxin affect the frog itself? 5 References Poison Dart Frog Golden poison frog ( Phyllobates terribilis ) is one of the deadliest poisonous animals in the world. These animals are endemic to the Pacific coast of Colombia. An average one milligram of poison available in one frog is enough to kill 10-20 humans [1] . Indigenous people carefully expose the frog to the heat of a fire, and the frog exudes small amounts of poisonous fluid. The tips of arrows and darts are soaked in the fluid. Their deadly effect kept for over two years [2] . The interesting question is, what makes the frog itself resistant to this deadly poison! How is the toxin produced? These animals store Batrachotoxin, a steroidal alkaloid toxin in their skin gla...
Read more

Bat-roost? To curb malaria!

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at https://amazingzoology.com/bat-roost-curb-malaria/ 110 years ago, one man set out to rid Texas of Malaria – with the help of what was then a very unlikely source… bats! Dr. Charles A. Campbell had a simple plan. He knew that bats eat mosquitoes, and believed that if he could entice thousands of bats to live in Malaria-ridden areas, they would single-wingedly eradicate the disease. After years of fruitless experimentation with small roosting boxe s, he decided to go BIG, with a 30-foot tower containing roosting shelves, guano lures, and a meal plan – three large hams! The $500 contraption was, alas, a flop. Campbell realized that he didn’t understand bats enough to provide suitable homes. He spent months studying caves and roosts to learn what bats needed most. In 1911 he constructed a new, improved tower at Mitchell’s Lake, where 90% of the locals were sick with Malaria. Within...
Read more

These electron microscopic images of human body will astonish you

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology Artery Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a a small artery (blood vessel) cut open with RBCs (red coloured) rushing outside. Blood Clot Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of red blood cells (erythrocytes) trapped in a fibrin mesh (yellow). The production of fibrin is triggered by cells called platelets, activated when a blood vessel is damaged. The fibrin binds the various blood cells together, forming a solid structure called a blood clot. A blood clot is a normal response, preventing an excessive loss of blood. However, inappropriate clotting is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. Red Blood Cells (RBC) They look like little cinnamon candies here, but they are actually the most common type of blood cell in the human body – red blood cells (RBCs). These biconcave-shaped cells have the tall task of carrying oxygen to our entire body; in women there are about 4 to 5 million RBCs per micro liter (cubic...
Read more