Abstract
The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest is an endangered biome and biodiversity hotspot. Ant cytogenetic studies from this biome showed remarkable chromosomal diversity among species, and provided useful insights on phylogeny, chromosomal evolution, and taxonomy. In this study, we karyotyped five ant taxa from the Atlantic rainforest. The karyotypes observed were Pheidole germaini 2n=22, Pheidole sp. flavens group 2n=20, Brachymyrmex admotus 2n=18, Camponotus atriceps 2n=40, and Odontomachus haematodus 2n=44. The data obtained for Pheidole spp. represent the first chromosomal record for the genus in Brazil and provide insights on the chromosomal evolution of P. germaini. Karyotypic information from B. admotus brings the genus back to the cytogenetic scenario after decades of neglect. No karyotype variations were observed among the C. atriceps and O. haematodus from different already studied populations, corroborating their status as good species. This study increased the cytogenetic knowledge of ants from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest.
Highlights
The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest is a biodiversity hotspot with a notable number of endemic species; anthropogenic actions have led to the substantial reduction and fragmentation of most of this biome, and the loss of this biodiversity (Morellato & Haddad, 2000; Paviolo et al, 2016)
The minimum interaction theory (MIT), the most widely used in ants, proposes that centric fissions are the main rearrangements that explain this significant chromosomal variation among species (Imai et al, 1994)
We described the karyotypes of five ant taxa, from four genus and three subfamilies, which live in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, suggesting insights on chromosomal evolution for some of these species
Summary
The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest is a biodiversity hotspot with a notable number of endemic species; anthropogenic actions have led to the substantial reduction and fragmentation of most of this biome, and the loss of this biodiversity (Morellato & Haddad, 2000; Paviolo et al, 2016). Ants show a significant karyotype diversity and the variation in the chromosome number observed for the Neotropical region is 2n=4 in Strumigenys louisianae Roger, 1863 to 2n=120 in Dinoponera lucida Emery, 1901 (reviewed by Mariano et al, 2019). We described the karyotypes of five ant taxa, from four genus and three subfamilies, which live in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, suggesting insights on chromosomal evolution for some of these species.
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