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Myrmecocystus mexicanus is a species of ant in the genus Myrmecocystus, which is one of the six genera that bear the common name "honey ant" or "honeypot ant", due to curious behavior where some of the workers will swell with liquid food until they become immobile and hang from the ceilings of nest chambers, acting as living food storage for the colony.
Some species live in extremely hot deserts, others reside in transitional habitats, and still other species can be found in woodlands which are somewhat cool but still very dry for a large part of the year. For instance, the well-studied Myrmecocystus mexicanus resides in the arid and semiarid habitats of the southwestern United States. Sterile ...
Myrmecocystus (from Koine Greek μυρμήκιον [mýrmikion], meaning "ant", and κύστις [kýstis], meaning "bladder" or "sac"), is a North American genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. It is one of five genera that includes honeypot ants . [ 2 ]
For instance, these replete workers develop in the North American honeypot ant Myrmecocystus mexicanus. Usually the largest workers in the colony develop into repletes; and, if repletes are removed from the colony, other workers become repletes, demonstrating the flexibility of this particular polymorphism. [55]
In other eusocial insects as well, worker size can determine what polymorphic role they become. For instance, larger workers in Myrmecocystus mexicanus (a North America species of honeypot ant) tend to become repletes, or workers so engorged with food that they become immobile and act a living food storage for the rest of the colonies. [13]
Myrmecocystus: Wesmael 1838 29 Myrmecocystus mexicanus: Myrmecocystus mexicanus [139] Myrmecorhynchus: André 1896 3 Myrmecorhynchus emeryi: Myrmecorhynchus emeryi [140] Myrmelachista: Roger 1863 56 Myrmelachista kraatzii: Myrmelachista kraatzii [103] Myrmoteras: Forel 1893 41 Myrmoteras binghamii: Myrmoteras binghamii [141] Notoncus: Emery ...
Association with Myrmecocystus mexicanus [ edit ] Cole et al. surveyed the distribution of Myrmecocystus mexicanus nests, (a species of North American honey ant) relative to the distribution of P. occidentalis nests at a site in western Colorado and found that there was a definite spatial association between the two species.
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