Extratos botânicos e seus efeitos em Atta sexdens rubropilosa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Morais, Wagner Calixto de Castro
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3966
• topic: Inseticidas botânicos; Controle de formigas-cortadeiras; Fungicidas botânicos; Botanical insecticides; Control of leaf-cutting ants; Botanical fungicides; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::FITOSSANIDADE::ENTOMOLOGIA AGRICOLA

The present study was developed in order to evaluate the effects of three plant species extracts on the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropiloa colonies. We used leaves of Ageratum conyzoides ( mentrasto ), Coriandrum sativum (coriander) and Mentha piperita (peppermint) species. The activities were conducted at the Federal University of Viçosa campus, in Viçosa-MG. First, we evaluated the effects of these plant extracts on workers physiology, through the immune response and respiratory metabolism. The extracts of coriander and mentrasto had an effect on the ants physiology. The workers increased their immune response when treated with the coriander extract. The mentrasto extract increased the respiratory metabolism of the ants. In another step, we investigated the effect of the extracts on the development of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants. It was found that the three extracts adversely affected the fungus growth causing complete inhibition of its development. The best performances were obtained with peppermint and mentrasto extracts that caused high reduction in the biomass of L. gongylophorus even at lower concentrations. Finally, we evaluated the mortality of ant nests after offering baits manufactured with leaves of the three plant species. The results indicated that the baits were unable to cause colony mortality. However, it was found that the treated nests stopped their cutting activity, suggesting baits´ effect on the colonies. Therefore A. conyzoides, C. sativum and M. piperita have deleterious effects on Atta sexdens rubropilosa colonies, and may be promising on the leaf-cutting ants control.