Cephalotes

''Cephalotes'' is a genus of tree-dwelling ant species from the Americas, commonly known as turtle ants. All appear to be gliding ants, with the ability to "parachute" and steer their fall so as to land back on the tree trunk rather than fall to the ground, which is often flooded.

Ecological specialization and evolution of a soldier caste

One of the most important aspects of the genus' social evolution and adaptation is the manner in which their social organization has been shaped by environmental pressures.Hölldobler, B., Wilson, E. O., & Nelson, M. C. (2009). The superorganism: the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. New York: W.W. Norton. This is particularly true of the species '' Cephalotes rohweri'', in which an entire soldier class has evolved as a result of highly specialized nest cavity availability.Powell, S. (2008). Ecological specialization and the evolution of a specialized caste in ''Cephalotes'' ant. Functional Ecology, 22, 902-911.

Because ants within ''Cephalotes'' use multiple carved nesting cavities found in the trees upon which they live, a cohort of morphologically specialized soldiers has evolved to defend these nesting cavities. They use their unique plate-like heads to block the entrances to the nests, essentially creating a living door to the nest cavities.

In one particular study, Scott Powell tested the hypothesis that "specialized use of cavities with entrances close to the area of one ant head has selected for a morphologically and behaviorally specialized soldier in ''Cephalotes''." This was accomplished by performing comparative studies between four ''Cephalotes'' species, each representing one of the four character states of soldier evolution. ''Cephalotes'' was ideal for the study because it is the only genus to contain extant species displaying four levels of major morphological evolution. These character states are:

# No soldier present (ancestral)
# Soldiers present with simple domed head
# Soldiers present with incomplete head-disk
# Soldiers present with complete head disk (most advanced)

Another study by Powell examined the process by which environmental factors shape colonial castes within the worker class. However, this study focused more on how colonies adapt their caste systems to ecological factors in their environment.Powell, S. (2009). How ecology shapes caste evolution: linking resource use, morphology, performance and fitness in a superorganism. Evolutionary Biology, 22, 1004-1013.

For the experiment, a species of the genus ''Cephalotes'' was used that displayed the highest level of soldier specialization. Three key findings regarding adaptive caste specialization were supported:

# Soldiers were best at defending the specific nesting resource found in nature.
# Colonies used only certain nests (out of all the available nests), and selected only the nesting sites that would maximize soldier performance.
# Soldier performance and limitations had both direct and indirect effects on colony reproduction.

The results of this experiment support the concept that the most specialized soldier phenotype in ''Cephalotes'' is a result of adaptation to ecological specialization within a narrow subset of available nests.

Species

* '' Cephalotes adolphi'' (Emery, 1906)
* '' Cephalotes alfaroi'' (Emery, 1890)
* †'' Cephalotes alveolatus'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* ''Cephalotes angustus'' (Mayr, 1862)
* '' Cephalotes argentatus'' (Smith, 1853)
* '' Cephalotes argentiventris'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes atratus'' (Linnaeus, 1758)
* '' Cephalotes auriger'' De Andrade, 1999
* ''Cephalotes basalis'' (Smith, 1876)
* ''Cephalotes betoi'' De Andrade, 1999
* ''Cephalotes biguttatus'' (Emery, 1890)
* ''Cephalotes bimaculatus'' (Smith, 1860)
* ''Cephalotes bivestitus'' (Santschi, 1922)
* ''Cephalotes bloosi'' Baroni Urbani, 1999
* ''Cephalotes bohlsi'' (Emery, 1896)
* ''Cephalotes borgmeieri'' (Kempf, 1951)
* ''Cephalotes brevispineus'' De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999
* ''Cephalotes bruchi'' (Forel, 1912)
* †'' Cephalotes caribicus'' De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999
* '' Cephalotes chacmul'' Snelling, 1999
* '' Cephalotes christopherseni'' (Forel, 1912)
* '' Cephalotes clypeatus'' (Fabricius, 1804)
* ''Cephalotes coffeae'' (Kempf, 1953)
* '' Cephalotes columbicus'' (Forel, 1912)
* '' Cephalotes complanatus'' (Guerin-Meneville, 1844)
* '' Cephalotes conspersus'' (Smith, 1867)
* '' Cephalotes cordatus'' (Smith, 1853)
* '' Cephalotes cordiae'' (Stitz, 1913)
* '' Cephalotes cordiventris'' (Santschi, 1931)
* '' Cephalotes crenaticeps'' (Mayr, 1866)
* '' Cephalotes cristatus'' (Emery, 1890)
* '' Cephalotes curvistriatus'' (Forel, 1899)
* '' Cephalotes decolor'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes decoloratus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes dentidorsum'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes depressus'' (Klug, 1824)
* †''Cephalotes dieteri'' De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999
* '' Cephalotes dorbignyanus'' (Smith, 1853)
* '' Cephalotes duckei'' (Forel, 1906)
* '' Cephalotes ecuadorialis'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes eduarduli'' (Forel, 1921)
* '' Cephalotes emeryi'' (Forel, 1912)
* '' Cephalotes fiebrigi'' (Forel, 1906)
* '' Cephalotes flavigaster'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes foliaceus'' (Emery, 1906)
* '' Cephalotes fossithorax'' (Santschi, 1921)
* '' Cephalotes frigidus'' (Kempf, 1960)
* '' Cephalotes gabicamacho'' Oliveira, Powell & Feitosa, 2021
* '' Cephalotes goeldii'' (Forel, 1912)
* '' Cephalotes goniodontes'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes grandinosus'' (Smith, 1860)
* '' Cephalotes guayaki'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes haemorrhoidalis'' (Latreille, 1802)
* '' Cephalotes hamulus'' (Roger, 1863)
* '' Cephalotes hirsutus'' De Andrade, 1999
* †'' Cephalotes hispaniolicus'' De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999
* '' Cephalotes inaequalis'' (Mann, 1916)
* '' Cephalotes inca'' (Santschi, 1911)
* '' Cephalotes incertus'' (Emery, 1906)
* '' Cephalotes insularis'' (Wheeler, 1934)
* ''Cephalotes integerrimus'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* '' Cephalotes jamaicensis'' (Forel, 1922)
* '' Cephalotes jansei'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* '' Cephalotes jheringi'' (Emery, 1894)
* '' Cephalotes klugi'' (Emery, 1894)
* '' Cephalotes kukulcan'' Snelling, 1999
* '' Cephalotes laminatus'' (Smith, 1860)
* '' Cephalotes lanuginosus'' (Santschi, 1919)
* '' Cephalotes lenca'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes liepini'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes liogaster'' (Santschi, 1916)
* '' Cephalotes liviaprado'' Oliveira, Powell & Feitosa, 2021
* '' Cephalotes maculatus'' (Smith, 1876)
* '' Cephalotes manni'' (Kempf, 1951)
* '' Cephalotes marginatus'' (Fabricius, 1804)
* '' Cephalotes mariadeandrade'' Oliveira, Powell & Feitosa, 2021
* '' Cephalotes marycorn'' Oliveira, Powell & Feitosa, 2021
* '' Cephalotes maya'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes membranaceus'' (Klug, 1824)
* '' Cephalotes minutus'' (Fabricius, 1804)
* '' Cephalotes mompox'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes monicaulyssea'' Oliveira, Powell & Feitosa, 2021
* '' Cephalotes multispinosus'' (Norton, 1868)
* '' Cephalotes nilpiei'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes notatus'' (Mayr, 1866)
* ''Cephalotes obscurus'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* '' Cephalotes oculatus'' (Spinola, 1851)
* '' Cephalotes olmecus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes opacus'' Santschi, 1920
* '' Cephalotes pallens'' (Klug, 1824)
* '' Cephalotes pallidicephalus'' (Smith, 1876)
* '' Cephalotes pallidoides'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes pallidus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes palta'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes palustris'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes patei'' (Kempf, 1951)
* '' Cephalotes patellaris'' (Mayr, 1866)
* '' Cephalotes pavonii'' (Latreille, 1809)
* '' Cephalotes pellans'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes persimilis'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes persimplex'' De Andrade, 1999
* ''Cephalotes peruviensis'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes pileini'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes pilosus'' (Emery, 1896)
* '' Cephalotes pinelii'' (Guerin-Meneville, 1844)
* '' Cephalotes placidus'' (Smith, 1860)
* '' Cephalotes poinari'' Baroni Urbani, 1999
* '' Cephalotes porrasi'' (Wheeler, 1942)
* '' Cephalotes prodigiosus'' (Santschi, 1921)
* '' Cephalotes pusillus'' (Klug, 1824)
* '' Cephalotes quadratus'' (Mayr, 1868)
* '' Cephalotes ramiphilus'' (Forel, 1904)
* '' Cephalotes resinae'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes rohweri'' (Wheeler, 1916)
* '' Cephalotes scutulatus'' (Smith, 1867)
* '' Cephalotes serraticeps'' (Smith, 1858)
* '' Cephalotes serratus'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* ''Cephalotes setulifer'' (Emery, 1894)
* '' Cephalotes simillimus'' (Kempf, 1951)
* '' Cephalotes sobrius'' (Kempf, 1958)
* '' Cephalotes solidus'' (Kempf, 1974)
* '' Cephalotes specularis'' Brandão ''et al.'', 2014
* '' Cephalotes spinosus'' (Mayr, 1862)
* '' Cephalotes squamosus'' (Vierbergen & Scheven, 1995)
* '' Cephalotes sucinus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes supercilii'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes taino'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes targionii'' (Emery, 1894)
* '' Cephalotes texanus'' (Santschi, 1915)
* '' Cephalotes toltecus'' De Andrade, 1999
* ''Cephalotes trichophorus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes umbraculatus'' (Fabricius, 1804)
* '' Cephalotes unimaculatus'' (Smith, 1853)
* '' Cephalotes ustus'' (Kempf, 1973)
* '' Cephalotes varians'' (Smith, 1876)
* ''Cephalotes ventriosus'' De Andrade, 1999
* '' Cephalotes vinosus'' (Wheeler, 1936)
* '' Cephalotes wheeleri'' (Forel, 1901)

See also

*'' Aphantochilus'', a genus of crab spiders known to mimic ''Cephalotes'' species

References

External links

*

{{Taxonbar, from=Q374613

Myrmicinae
Ant genera