''Tetraponera'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of ants in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Pseudomyrmecinae Pseudomyrmecinae is a small subfamily of ants containing only three genera of slender, large-eyed arboreal ants, predominantly tropical or subtropical in distribution. In the course of adapting to arboreal conditions (unlike the predominantly gro ...

that are commonly known as slender ants and are characterized by their arboreal nature and slender bodies. The 96 described

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of ''Tetraponera'' all of which live in hollow structures of plants and trees, such as thorns or branches; these hosts are known as myrmecophytes. ''Tetraponera'' species are closely related to the New World genus of ants '' Pseudomyrmex'', but differ in their relationships with host plants.

Mutualisms and behaviour

''Tetraponera'' species are generally defined by the myrmecophytes they inhabit and the mutualistic relationship they share. These host plants always have hollow thorns or branches in which the ants can live and form a

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

. Also, the myrmecophytes provide energy rich food sources such as extrafloral nectar and/or

food bodies A Beltian body is a detachable tip found on the pinnules of some species of ''Acacia'' and closely related genera. Beltian bodies, named after Thomas Belt, are rich in lipids, sugars and proteins and often red in colour. They are believed to have e ...

. All ''Tetraponera'' species have gut symbionts that allow them to digest

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

-deficient food provided by their host plants; these

gut bacteria Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora, are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the gut mic ...

are especially important for the species that only survive on the myrmecophyte-provided foods. All ''Tetraponera'' species provide protection for their host plants through aggressive nature towards other insects and trimming leaves/branches of neighbouring plants. Living in hollow structures of the plants allows the ants to detect vibrations when larger insects land on the plant, or workers on patrol visually detect smaller intruders. Once detected, sophisticated pheromone systems allow the ants to quickly outnumber and overpower any invaders. Most insect invaders are killed and discarded by ''Tetraponera'' workers such as caterpillars and aphids, but some are killed and consumed. The insects that take the most time and effort to kill are generally consumed; these are mostly

katydids Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, t ...

leaf beetles The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

. As well as assaulting and killing insects that attack their host plant, ''Tetraponera'' ants will attack any mammals that present a threat. Inflicting the mammals with painful stings will usually deter them from attacking the plant. In some arboreal ant species, not just ''Tetraponera'', a third partner in ant-myrmecophyte mutualisms is

hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

n trophobionts. These insects provide a possible third source of food for the ants, in return the ants feed and “nurture” the Hemiptera inside their

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

Distribution

''Tetraponera'' species are found commonly in the warmer regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Different species are associated with different plant species. The most common myrmecophytes for ''Tetraponera'' are

acacias ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

, but the wide variety of hosts for this genus include

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

s and lianas. ''Tetraponera'' ants trim neighbouring plants to prevent any intrusion of other ants or caterpillars from those plants and to reduce

resource competition Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. R ...

for their

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

. ''Tetraponera'' species only leave their myrmecophyte to start a new colony on a different host; a

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and a number of workers leave the old host plant to allow the colony to continue to expand.

Lifecycle and castes

Tetraponera natalensis, werkerkaste, Pretoria

''Tetraponera'', like most ants, has one or a few queens that are the only females to

reproduce Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual org ...

in a colony. The

sterile Sterile or sterility may refer to: *Asepsis, a state of being free from biological contaminants * Sterile (archaeology), a sediment deposit which contains no evidence of human activity *Sterilization (microbiology), any process that eliminates or ...

workers are all females that forage for food and defend the colony. Males are produced only during certain times of the year and disperse to mate with virgins queens from other colonies. Since ants are haplodiploid, they can control what sex their offspring will be; an unfertilised egg will become a male, while a fertilised egg will be female. This reliably restricts the production of male alates to the species' mating season, when the winged virgin queens and males fly from their home colonies to mate and start new colonies. The eggs produced by the queen hatch into

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

which are cared for inside the colony, protected from any predators by the workers. The amount of care each female larva receives determines its fate as a worker or a new queen; all males are drones. When a new colony is formed, eggs are initially produced at a low rate, but this quickly increases in the second to fourth years, to ensure enough workers are produced to protect and provide for the growing colony.

Species

*'' T. aethiops'' Smith, 1877 *'' T. aitkenii'' (Forel, 1902) *'' T. allaborans'' (Walker, 1859) *'' T. amargina'' Xu & Chai, 2004 *'' T. ambigua'' (Emery, 1895) *'' T. andrei'' (Mayr, 1895) *'' T. anthracina'' (Santschi, 1910) *'' T. apiculata'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. atra'' Donisthorpe, 1949 *'' T. attenuata'' Smith, 1877 *'' T. avia'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. bifoveolata'' (Mayr, 1895) *'' T. binghami'' (Forel, 1902) *'' T. bita'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. brevis'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. buops'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. caffra'' (Santschi, 1914) *'' T. clypeata'' (Emery, 1886) *'' T. concava'' Xu & Chai, 2004 *'' T. conica'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. connectens'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. continua'' (Forel, 1907) *'' T. convexa'' Xu & Chai, 2004 *'' T. cortina'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. crassiuscula'' (Emery, 1900) *'' T. diana'' (Santschi, 1911) *'' T. difficilis'' (Emery, 1900) *'' T. dispar'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. elegans'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. emeryi'' (Forel, 1911) *'' T. erythraea'' (Emery, 1895) *†'' T. europaea'' Dlussky, 2009 *'' T. exactor'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. exasciata'' (Forel, 1892) *'' T. extenuata'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. fictrix'' (Forel, 1897) *'' T. furcata'' Xu & Chai, 2004 *'' T. furtiva'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. gerdae'' (Stitz, 1911) *'' T. grandidieri'' (Forel, 1891) *†'' T. groehni'' Dlussky, 2009 *'' T. hespera'' Ward, 2009 *'' T. hirsuta'' Ward, 2009 *'' T. hysterica'' (Forel, 1892) *'' T. inermis'' Ward, 2009 *'' T. insularis'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. inversinodis'' Ward, 2001 *†'' T. klebsi'' (Wheeler, 1915) *'' T. kosi'' Ward, 2022 *†'' T. lacrimarum'' (Wheeler, 1915) *'' T. laeviceps'' (Smith, 1859) *'' T. latifrons'' (Emery, 1912) *'' T. liengmei'' (Forel, 1894) *'' T. longula'' (Emery, 1895) *'' T. manangotra'' Ward, 2009 *'' T. mandibularis'' (Emery, 1895) *'' T. mayri'' (Forel, 1901) *'' T. merita'' Ward, 2009 *'' T. microcarpa'' Wu & Wang, 1990 *'' T. mimula'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. mocquerysi'' (André, 1890) *'' T. modesta'' (Smith, 1860) *'' T. morondaviensis'' (Forel, 1891) *'' T. natalensis'' (Smith, 1858) *'' T. nigra'' (Jerdon, 1851) *'' T. nitida'' (Smith, 1860) *'' T. nixa'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. nodosa'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. notabilis'' Ward, 2001 *†'' T. ocellata'' (Mayr, 1868) *†'' T. oligocenica'' (Théobald, 1937) *'' T. ophtalmica'' (Emery, 1912) *'' T. parops'' Ward, 2006 *'' T. pedana'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. penzigi'' (Mayr, 1907) *'' T. periyarensis'' Bharti & Akbar, 2014 *'' T. perlonga'' Santschi, 1928 *'' T. phragmatica'' Ward, 2006 *'' T. pilosa'' (Smith, 1858) *'' T. polita'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. protensa'' Xu & Chai, 2004 *'' T. pumila'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. punctulata'' Smith, 1877 *'' T. rakotonis'' (Forel, 1891) *'' T. redacta'' Ward, 2022 *'' T. rotula'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. rufonigra'' (Jerdon, 1851) *'' T. sahlbergii'' (Forel, 1887) *'' T. schulthessi'' (Santschi, 1915) *'' T. setosa'' Ward, 2022 *†'' T. simplex'' (Mayr, 1868) *'' T. tessmanni'' (Stitz, 1910) *'' T. tucurua'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. variegata'' (Forel, 1895) *'' T. vivax'' Ward, 2001 *'' T. volucris'' Ward, 2001

References

* Borm, S.V., A. Buschinger, J. J. Boomsma and J. Billen. 2002. Tetraponera ants have gut symbionts related to nitrogen-fixing root-nodule bacteria. Biological Sciences. 269:2023-2027. * Ward, P.S. 2001. Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the ant genus Tetraponera (Hymenoptera:Formicidae) in the Oriental and Australian regions Invertebrate Taxonomy. 15:589:665. * Dejean, A., J. Orivel and C. Djieto-Lordon. 2008. The plant ant Tetraponera aethiops (Pseudomyrmecinae) protects its host myrmecophyte Barteria fistulosa (Passifloraceae) through aggressiveness and predation. 93:63-69. * Australian Biological Resources and Study: Australian Faunal Directory. http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/fauna/afd/taxa/Tetraponera

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q771402 Pseudomyrmecinae Ant genera