Papers by Daniela Faria Florencio
In order to fit sampling methods of soil termites to silvicultural areas, subterranean baits were... more In order to fit sampling methods of soil termites to silvicultural areas, subterranean baits were evaluated and compared along the four seasons, in eucalyptus crops in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. Thus, Termitrap® baits were buried at 15 and 50cm deep for 30 and 60 days. Results showed that in the South, due to climatic and edaphic existing conditions, such baits are inefficient to sample soil termites. Nevertheless, in the southeast region, regardless of the depth in which the baits had been buried for 60 days, termites were trapped with varying frequencies, from 30% in Winter to 58% in Spring. Thus, in the eucalyptus forests of the Southeast region, Termitrap® baits could be used to monitoring the abundance of subterranean termites.
Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi - Ciências Naturais
A mirmecóloga brasileira Elena Diehl (1949-2018) desenvolveu sua carreira científica na Universid... more A mirmecóloga brasileira Elena Diehl (1949-2018) desenvolveu sua carreira científica na Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, ao longo de 36 anos. Formada em História Natural, em 1970, pela mesma instituição, consagrou sua carreira acadêmica aprofundando questões sobre genética, comportamento, controle biológico, história natural e diversidade de formigas e térmitas do Rio Grande do Sul. Um dos marcos de sua obra foi o livro intitulado “Formigas: organização social e ecologia comportamental”, publicado em 1995. A pesquisadora participou ativamente da consolidação do curso de graduação em Ciências Biológicas e da formação do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia, foi editora-chefe do periódico Acta Biologica Leopoldensia e participou da formação de 64 estudantes de graduação e mestrado. Como chefe do Laboratório de Genética de Insetos Sociais, publicou 80 artigos científicos, um livro e 15 capítulos de livros. Até hoje, a história da mirmecologia do Rio Grande do Sul se confunde com...
Ecological Entomology
1. Resource density can regulate the area that animals use. At low resource density, there is a c... more 1. Resource density can regulate the area that animals use. At low resource density, there is a conflict in terms of balance between costs of foraging and benefits acquired. The foraging of the higher termite Nasutitermes aff. coxipoensis consists of searching throughout trails and a building galleries phase. 2. In this study, a manipulative field experiment was used to test the hypothesis that colonies of N. aff. coxipoensis forage towards a more profitable balance between the establishment of trails and gallery construction at low resource density. 3. The experiment was conducted in northeastern Brazil. Seven experimental plots were established with a continuous increase in resource density (sugarcane baits). Entire colonies of N. aff. coxipoensis were transplanted from their original sites to the experimental plot, totalling 35 nests. The number, branches and total length of trails and galleries were quantified. 4. The results show that N. aff. coxipoensis optimises its foraging output, intensifying the establishment of trails at the cost of gallery construction when resource density is low. The number of trails, the number of trail branches and the total length of trails decreased with increasing resource density. Interestingly, at low resource density, the search effort was concentrated on forming longer and a greater number of trails, a small proportion of which were converted into galleries. The opposite relationship was observed at high resource density. 5. These results suggest an optimisation of search efforts during foraging depending on resource density, a mechanism that may help researchers to understand the use of space by higher termite species.
Sociobiology
Inter-specific symbiotic links are often reinforced by morphological, physiological, or behaviour... more Inter-specific symbiotic links are often reinforced by morphological, physiological, or behavioural trait modification undergone by the associated species. In some cases, such as in physogastric termitophile staphylinids, such modifications do facilitate the social interaction. Here we inspect chemical traits of the physogastric staphylinid Corotoca melantho (Insecta: Coleoptera) and its termite host Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Insecta: Blattodea: Isoptera), aiming to verify whether staphylinids resemble their host. First, we compared CHC profiles of hosts and guests within and among termitaria, to gather evidence on the origin of such profiles in guests. Then, we examined nitrogen and carbon isotopic signatures of these cohabitants to inspect whether chemical disguise is achieved by predation of host workers by staphylinids. Beetles presented CHC more similar to the CHC of their cohabiting termites than to (i) their conspecifics and (ii) termites from another nest, thereby favou...
ABSTRACT Seasonal collections of termites were carried out in an Eucalyptus forest in the region ... more ABSTRACT Seasonal collections of termites were carried out in an Eucalyptus forest in the region of Anhemby, State of São Paulo, Brazil by using three sampling techniques: Termitrap® baits buried for 60 days, soil samples (1 m2) with litter and hand collections under/on tree trunk barks. One observed Conditions under which collections were carried out allowed for the finding of a decreased species richness in Winter and Spring (S=5), with an increase one in Summer (S=7) and Fall (S=9). Along the four seasons Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen) (Rhinotermitidae) was collected at high frequency, while Tetimatermes oliveirae (Fontes) and two other species of Apicotermitinae were found at low frequency. Although not throughout the seasons, five species of Termitidae Nasutitermitinae were found: Araujotermes sp., Cornitermes cumulans (Kollar), Diversitermes diversimiles (Silvestri), Rhynchotermes sp. and Subulitermes sp., and one of Termitidae, Termitinae: Neocapritermes opacus (Hagen), all occurring at low frequency.
Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, 2006
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2011
How do termite inquilines manage to cohabit termitaria along with the termite builder species? Wi... more How do termite inquilines manage to cohabit termitaria along with the termite builder species? With this in mind, we analysed one of the several strategies that inquilines could use to circumvent conflicts with their hosts, namely, the use of distinct diets. We inspected overlapping patterns for the diets of several cohabiting Neotropical termite species, as inferred from carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures for termite individuals. Cohabitant communities from distinct termitaria presented overlapping diet spaces, indicating that they exploited similar diets at the regional scale. When such communities were split into their components, full diet segregation could be observed between builders and inquilines, at regional (environment-wide) and local (termitarium) scales. Additionally, diet segregation among inquilines themselves was also observed in the vast majority of inspected termitaria. Inquiline species distribution among termitaria was not random. Environmental-wide diet similarity, coupled with local diet segregation and deterministic inquiline distribution, could denounce interactions for feeding resources. However, inquilines and builders not sharing the same termitarium, and thus not subject to potential conflicts, still exhibited distinct diets. Moreover, the areas of the builder's diet space and that of its inquilines did not correlate negatively. Accordingly, the diet areas of builders which hosted inquilines were in average as large as the areas of builders hosting no inquilines. Such results indicate the possibility that dietary partitioning by these cohabiting termites was not majorly driven by current interactive constraints. Rather, it seems to be a result of traits previously fixed in the evolutionary past of cohabitants.
Structural and functional traits of organisms are known to be related to the size of individuals ... more Structural and functional traits of organisms are known to be related to the size of individuals and to the size of their colonies when they belong to one. Among such traits, propensity to inquilinism in termites is known to relate positively to colony size. Larger termitaria hold larger diversity of facultative inquilines than smaller nests, whereas obligate inquilines seem unable to settle in nests smaller than a threshold volume. Respective underlying mechanisms, however, remain hypothetical. Here we test one of such hypotheses, namely, that nest defence correlates negatively to nest volume in Constrictotermes cyphergaster termites (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae). As a surrogate to defence, we used 'patrolling rate', i.e., the number of termite individuals attending per unit time an experimentally damaged spot on the outer wall of their termitaria. We found that patrolling rate decayed allometrically with increasing nest size. Conspicuously higher patrolling rates occurred in smaller nests, while conspicuously lower rates occurred in larger nests presenting volumes in the vicinity of the threshold value for the establishment of inquilinism. This could be proven adaptive for the host and guest. At younger nest age, host colonies are smaller and presumably more vulnerable and unstable. Enhanced defence rates may, hence, prevent eventual risks to hosts from inquilinism at the same time that it prevents inquilines to settle in a still unstable nest. Conversely, when colonies grow and maturate enough to stand threats, they would invest in priorities other than active defence, opening an opportunity for inquilines to settle in nests which are more suitable or less risky. Under this twofold process, cohabitation between host and inquiline could readily stabilize.
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Papers by Daniela Faria Florencio