Leaf-cutting ants (LCA) try to reduce the risk of contamination in their colonies by avoiding contact with their nest refuse (NR), as it can harbor substances harmful to them and their symbiotic fungi. Here, we tested whether an aqueous extract with 10% (vol/vol) of NR of the leaf-cutting ant Atta opaciceps Borgmeier (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Attini) causes a deterrent effect. We placed leaves of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. (Malvaceae) sprayed with NR extract or distilled water (control) in the foraging areas of 12 colonies -eight colonies of A. opaciceps and four of Atta sexdens (L.) -for 60 min, on three consecutive days. The fresh weight of remaining leaf fragments between treatments was compared using linear-mixed effect models. Leaf consumption was significantly lower in the presence of NR extract for 48 h, indicating that the NR odor impregnated in the leaves may have been the responsible factor for the deterrence. Further studies are needed to establish a deterrent extract with a broad spectrum and lasting effect on plants, and to better understand the mechanisms involved in deterrence.
The quest to combat the spread of the new Corona Virus Pandemic is a battle experienced worldwide, more specifically in the year 2020 when it caused a tragedy in the lives of a large part of the world population. The current numbers of contaminated people and deaths are alarming. Transmitted through droplets expelled through the nose or mouth, it leads to fever, which is the most common symptom of COVID-19. A technique that uses thermal images to check dispersed heat is a thermography. These images are captured by thermal cameras or devices with temperature sensors. Thus, the purpose of this work was to map the deposits of patent applications in order to seek technologies related to the use of thermal images to control the pandemic. The search base chosen for this research characterized as exploratory quantitative was Espacenet, which returned a final result of 119 published patent documents. Of these 93 documents were worked on in this article which gave us a more discussed result, since the others were repeated. The research revealed that patent applications in this area were stable until the current year when a Corona Virus pandemic spread, forcing researchers to develop research in order to combat it. The increase in the number of patents in 2020 shows the tendency to increase to 2021 when new research should appear and, consequently, new patented documents may be exposed in the future.
Some studies report the positive effect of organic residues from ant nests on soil properties and on the structure of the adjacent plant community in field experiments, but there is a gap about the effect on individual species. The purpose of the present study was to compare the soil nutrient content and the development of Turnera subulata Smith, an ornamental species, in the presence of the nest refuse (basically composed of fragments of grass leaves and the symbiotic fungus) produced by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex balzani (Emery, 1890) or in control soil through a greenhouse pot experiment. The experiment was carried out with two treatments: control soil and soil with 25% of nest refuse. The plants were kept in 1L pots for 90 days. We evaluated the parameters: plant height, stem diameter, root length, number of leaves, dry weight of the root, dry and fresh aboveground biomass. Additionally, the relative chlorophyll content and leaf nutrients were used as nutritional parameters. As a result, plants that grew in the soil with nest refuse showed significant higher values of all parameters evaluated when compared to the control treatment (p < 0.001). We conclude that this biofertilizer contributed to the production of more vigorous plants, being able to act on the local dynamics of nutrients in the ecosystems where A. balzani occurs. As it is relatively abundant and easy to collect, the refuse of A. balzani has the potential to be used as an alternative substrate in the production of shortlife cycle plants.
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