Atta texana (Buckley, 1860)

Aguilar-Mendez, Mario J., Rosas-Mejia, Madai, Vasquez-Bolanos, Miguel, Gonzalez-Hernandez, Gloria Angelica & Janda, Milan, 2021, New distributional records for ants and the evaluation of ant species richness and endemism patterns in Mexico, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 60630-60630 : 60630

Atta texana (Buckley, 1860)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: adult; reproductiveCondition: non-reproductive; Taxon: kingdom: Animalia ; phylum: Arthropoda ; class: Insecta ; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Atta ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Buckley, 1860); Location : country: Mexico; stateProvince: Guanajuato; locality: Santa Rosa de Lima ; verbatimElevation: 2296 m; decimalLatitude: 21.12928; decimalLongitude: -101.18494; Identification: identifiedBy: Aguilar-Méndez M.J.; Rosas-Mejía M.; Vásquez-Bolaños M.; Event: samplingProtocol: Hand collecting; year: 2017; month: 5; day: 20; habitat: annual temporal and semi-permanent agriculture

Distribution

Atta texana (Buckley, 1860) were found at Santa Rosa de Lima, Guanajuato, in an oak forest with an average mean temperature (amt) of 15.31 ºC and 60.41 mm/cm2 of annual mean precipitation (amp). The native distribution of A. texana is continuous from Texas to Tabasco, in addition to records from Panama and Cuba. Dry habitats, similar to those that we found in Guanajuato, are represented in such nearby States of San Luis Potosi and Durango. Even though these ants are found in dry conditions, they are also recorded in more humid habitats ( Mueller et al. 2011).

Biology

Atta texana cultivate fungi as food. To maintain the fungal colony, defoliation of the nearby vegetation is needed, because the plant biomass serves as detrital substrate ( Schowalter and Ring 2017). This leaf cutting ant needs suitable sites for nesting and the distribution of host plants can regulate their populations ( Waller 1982). The mutualistic Leucoagaricus gongylophorus , associated with A. texana , tolerates cold more than other fungi associated with leaf-cutting ants. This could explain the northern occurrence of this species ( Mueller et al. 2011).