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Dates of Nuptial Flights in different species of Leaf Cutters

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 3:24 pm
by Acromyrmexbob
Taken from http://www.keyapa.com/leafcutters/nuptials.htm

Atta/Acromyrmex (Brazil) According to Professor Luiz Carlos Forti, the colonies of mature leaf-cutting ants, after the third year of age, annually produce winged ants, males (bitus) and females (içás or tanajuras) that leave the nest where they were raised to found new colonies and perpetuate the species. Commonly, the dispersion in nuptial flight takes place, in the Southeast and Center-West regions, from September to December, and in the South of Brazil from June to December, periods that coincide with the beginning of the rains and also with the hottest time of the year . Professor Luiz Carlos Forti
Atta bisphaerica October to December Ichinose K, Rinaldi I, and Forti LC. (2004). Winged leaf-cutting ants on nuptial flights used as transport by Attacobius spiders for dispersal. Ecological Entomology. 29(5): 628-631.
Atta cephalotes Flights occured after early summer rains in May. Mintzer, A. 1990. Foundress female weight and cooperative foundation in Atta leaf-cutting ants. Pp. 180–183 in R. K. Vander Meer, K. Jaffe, and A. Cedeno, eds. Applied myrmecology: a world perspective. Westview Press, San Francisco, CA.
Atta laevigata The nuptial flight of the arrieras occurs with the strongest rains of the beginning of winter, at the end of April or beginning of May, in the savannas of the Eastern Plains of Colombia. Peres FC and Leon-Sicard TC (2003). CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE ECOLOGICAL PAPER OF THE ARRIER ANT (Atta laevigata) IN THE ECOSYSTEMS OF SEASONAL SABANA (VICHADA, COLOMBIA). Caldasia 25 (2) 2003: 403-417
Atta mexicana Flights occured after rainfalls in June and July. Mintzer, A. 1990. Foundress female weight and cooperative foundation in Atta leaf-cutting ants. Pp. 180–183 in R. K. Vander Meer, K. Jaffe, and A. Cedeno, eds. Applied myrmecology: a world perspective. Westview Press, San Francisco, CA.
Texas act Flights occured just before dawn on days after heavy rainfalls in late April, May, and early June. Mintzer, A. 1990. Foundress female weight and cooperative foundation in Atta leaf-cutting ants. Pp. 180–183 in R. K. Vander Meer, K. Jaffe, and A. Cedeno, eds. Applied myrmecology: a world perspective. Westview Press, San Francisco, CA.
Acromyrmex versicolor All major mating flights were preceeded on the previous day by a heavy late summer rain that wetted the soil to greater than 13 cm. Flights were aborted by cold early morning temperatures. Thus, in Arizona, mating flights occur from late July to October, depending on rainfall patterns. Mating flights begin in early morning. Johnson, R. A., and S. W. Rissing. 1993. Breeding biology of the leaf- cutter ant Acromyrmex versicolor (Pergande) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 66:127-128.