''Paratrechina'' is one of seven

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

(alongside ''

Euprenolepis ''Euprenolepis'' is a Southeast Asian genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae with eight recognized species. Species * '' Euprenolepis echinata'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis maschwitzi'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis negrosensis'' (Wheel ...

Nylanderia ''Nylanderia'' is a large genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution with species inhabiting a wide array of habitats in almost all geographic regions. ''Nylanderia'', currently containing over 11 ...

Paraparatrechina ''Paraparatrechina'' is a genus of small ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus contains 39 species distributed in the tropics of Africa, Asia and Australia. Distribution and habitat The genus is restricted to the Paleotropics. Thirteen sp ...

Prenolepis ''Prenolepis'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. Most species are found in southeastern Asia and southern China, but the genus has a wide distribution with species known from North America, southern Europe, Anatolia, Cuba, Haiti, ...

Pseudolasius ''Pseudolasius'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus is known from southern Asia (from India to China) to northern Australia, where it appears to be restricted to tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surroundin ...

,'' and ''

Zatania ''Zatania'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus is known from Central America and the Greater Antilles The Greater Antilles is a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Ric ...

'') in the ''Prenolepis'' genus-group from 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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Formicinae The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development. Formicines retain some primitive features, such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and littl ...

(

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Lasiini Lasiini is a tribe of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. There are about 10 genera and more than 450 described species in Lasiini. Genera These genera belong to the tribe Lasiini: * ''Cladomyrma'' Wheeler, 1920 * ''Euprenolepis'' Emery, 1906 * ' ...

). Six species are included in ''Paratrechina''; one of which, the longhorn crazy ant ('' Paratrechina longicornis''), is a widespread,

pantropical A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers tropical regions of both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''. ''Neotropical' ...

pest.

Distribution

Most ''Paratrechina'' species are native to

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

and

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, but one species, ''Paratrechina umbra'', has only been found in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and is native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. The only species found outside of these regions is ''Paratrechina longicornis'', which has been introduced by humans to tropical areas across the globe. The native range of ''Paratrechina longicornis'' is currently unknown, but it is thought to be of either African or Asian origin. Although ''Paratrechina longicornis'' has been found in undisturbed habitats in Southeast Asia, the Afrotropics are the center of ''Paratrechina'' diversity. ''Paratrechina zanjensis'', the purported

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to ''Paratrechina longicornis'', is found specifically in miombo woodlands across central and eastern Africa (including

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

), and ''Paratrechina longicornis'' is also considered a woodland specialist.

Taxonomy

In 2010, the genus ''Paratrechina'' was discovered to be

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

with respect to the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Nylanderia,'' which was then elevated to full generic status. This taxonomic change resulted in ''Paratrechina'' becoming

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

with ''Paratrechina longicornis'' as its sole species. A taxonomic review of ''Paratrechina'' in 2013 resulted in the description of another species from Africa, called ''Paratrechina zanjensis,'' and in 2014 the central African species ''Paratrechina kohli'' was transferred from ''Prenolepis'' and two more new species from Madagascar were described: ''Paratrechina ankarana'' and ''Paratrechina antsingy.'' The last taxonomic change to the genus was in 2016 when the Southeast Asian species ''Paratrechina umbra'' was transferred from ''Prenolepis,'' bringing ''Paratrechina'' to a total count of six species. This includes the ant commonly known as a "sugar ant", or "concrete ant". Not to be confused with pavement ants, as these are a separate species of ant.

Morphology

Workers

''Paratrechina'' species are most readily recognized by their

gracile Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective ''gracilis'' (masculine or feminine), or ''gracile'' ( neuter), which in either form means slender, and when transferred for examp ...

appearance due to their elongate scapes (first antennal segment), head,

tibiae The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the t ...

, and

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and a ...

. They also have erect macrosetae on the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

and

mesonotum The mesothorax is the middle of the three segments of the thorax of hexapods, and bears the second pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the mesonotum (dorsal), the mesosternum ( ventral), and the mesopleuron (lateral) ...

, but not the

propodeum Propodeum labelled within the alitrunk of an ant worker The propodeum is a term that can refer to unrelated structures in insects or in mollusks. Insects The first abdominal segment in Apocrita Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants) is known a ...

. The mesonotal and metanotal sutures of the mesosoma are always deep and complete, dividing those parts of the body into distinct segments. These sutures are useful for distinguishing ''Paratrechina'' from three other closely related genera: ''Paraparatrechina, Prenolepis,'' and ''Zatania.'' ''Euprenolepis, Nylanderia,'' and ''Pseudolasius'' also have these deep and complete sutures and together form a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

with ''Paratrechina''. ''Paratrechina'' species are very similar in appearance to those of ''Nylanderia'', but may be distinguished by the placement of the compound eyes on the head. ''Nylanderia'' always have eyes placed to the anterior of the midline of the head, while the eyes of ''Paratrechina'' species (except ''Paratrechina umbra,'' which also has anteriorly placed eyes) are placed slightly posterior to the midline. ''Nylanderia'' are also known to always have six teeth on the masticatory margin of the

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

, while most ''Paratrechina'' species have five; exceptions being ''Paratrechina kohli,'' which has eight, and ''Paratrechina umbra'', which has six.

Reproductives

''Paratrechina''

queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

and males are known only from ''Paratrechina longicornis'' and have not been described for any other species within the genus. The males of ''Paratrechina longicornis'' are quite distinct from those of closely related genera. Compared to those of ''Prenolepis'' and ''Zatania'', males of ''Paratrechina longicornis'' have much shorter, more robust

paramere Parameres ('side parts') are part of the external reproductive organs of male insects and the term was first used by Karl Wilhelm Verhoeff, Verhoeff in 1893 for the lateral genital lobes in Coleoptera. The primary phallic lobes which appear in th ...

s. The parameres also have a more dorsal orientation and curvature, making them especially unique among ''Prenolepis'' genus-group males. To reproduce the male genitals enter through the oral cavity, the sperm ejects to down as the womb is connected to the stomach. it takes around 5-8 months for birth.

Reproductive biology

While most ant species exhibit arrhenotokous

parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which the embryo develops directly from an egg without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertiliz ...

in which

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

, fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens), and haploid, unfertilized eggs become males, ''Paratrechina longicornis'' is one of several ant species also known to be thelytokous, and queens can additionally produce female offspring asexually. As a result, sibling mating allows recombination of

allele An allele is a variant of the sequence of nucleotides at a particular location, or Locus (genetics), locus, on a DNA molecule. Alleles can differ at a single position through Single-nucleotide polymorphism, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), ...

s without increasing deleterious

homozygosity Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

and bypasses the downsides of inbreeding because the

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

s of the queens and males within a colony are not linked.

Symbiosis

''See also'':

Myrmecophily thumb , Myrmecophilous aphids being tended by ants Myrmecophily ( , ) consists of positive, mutualistic, interspecies associations between ants and a variety of other organisms, such as plants, other arthropods, and fungi. It may also incl ...

Mutualism

Some species of ''Paratrechina'' have been reported to engage in mutualistic association with caterpillars of '' Eurybia elvina'', a metalmark butterfly. The ants are attracted to the tentacle nectary organ of the caterpillars, which produces

exudate An exudate is a fluid released by an organism through pores or a wound, a process known as exuding or exudation. ''Exudate'' is derived from ''exude'' 'to ooze' from Latin language, Latin 'to (ooze out) sweat' (' 'out' and ' 'to sweat'). Medi ...

s rich in sugar and

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

s. The ants are thought to provide protection to the caterpillars against natural enemies in return for this source of nutrition. However, it is important to note that this observation was made in 1987, long before major taxonomic changes to the genus in 2010. The publication that describes this mutualistic behavior does not specify which ''Paratrechina'' species engaged in this behavior, and the only ''Paratrechina'' species currently known from Mexico, where this behavior was documented, is the exotic pest, the longhorn crazy ant ('' Paratrechina longicornis.''). All other species in Mexico that were thought to be ''Paratrechina'' at the time of this publication (1987) are now classified as ''Nylanderia'' species. While it is possible that at least one of the species tending ''Eurybia elvina'' was ''Paratrechina longicornis'', this is impossible to confirm from the original publication. Twenty-seven genera of

Actinomycetota The Actinomycetota (or Actinobacteria) are a diverse phylum of Gram-positive bacteria with high GC content. They can be terrestrial or aquatic. They are of great importance to land flora because of their contributions to soil systems. In soil t ...

have been found in association with ''Paratrechina longicornis'' colonies and the soils surrounding their nests. These

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s often provide benefits to insects by protecting them from

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

Kleptoparasitism

Myrmecophilous,

kleptoparasitic Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct fe ...

ant crickets of the species '' Myrmecophilus americanus'' are closely associated with ''Paratrechina longicornis'' nests from localities in tropics all around the world. Ant crickets live inside of ant nests and steal food resources, presumably through

trophallaxis Trophallaxis () is the transfer of food or other fluids among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth (stomodeum, stomodeal) or anus-to-mouth (proctodeum, proctodeal) feeding. Along with nutrients, trophallaxis can involve the transfer of m ...

with worker ants. All known cases of ants in association with this ant cricket except one involve ''Paratrechina longicornis'' as the host ant species. The body of ''Myrmecophilus americanus'' is similar in overall size and shape to the gaster of ''Paratrechina longicornis'' queens, indicating that this may be a form of

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

that reduces the chances that the cricket will be detected within the colony.

In popular culture

The longhorn crazy ant (''Paratrechina longicornis'') made an appearance as one of the companion species to the eponymous superhero in the

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

movie,

Ant-Man Ant-Man is the name of several superheroes appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, his first appearance was in '' Tales to Astonish'' #27 (January 1962) as Dr. Henry ...

(2015). Although the film refers to the species as ''Paratrechina longicornis'', the CGI-rendered ants and their behaviors in the movie arguably hold more resemblance to the Rasberry/tawny crazy ant. ('' Nylanderia fulva'').

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q148927 Formicinae Ant genera