Overwintering and Cold-Hardiness of Ants in the Northeast of Asia

About this book

This monograph examines how land insects, in particular ants, adapt to winter survival in northeastern Russia, the region with the lowest winter temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Data on the geographical, landscape and habitat distribution of species, the abundance of nests and families, location and organization of nests and population structure are given and Winter thermal regimes under conditions of extreme continental climate in differently positioned nests are described in detail.

Contents

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 9 PREFACE OF THE EDITOR OF THE RUSSIAN EDITION 13 INTRODUCTION 17 CHAPTER 1. CLIMATE AND LANDSCAPES OF THE UPPER KOLYMA REGION 29 Factors of landscape formation 33 Relief and altitudinal belts 33 Permafrost conditions 34 Climate 36 Factors of microclimate formation 39 Ecosystems of the Area 40 Ecosystems of the sparse larch forest belt 40 Ecosystems of slopes 41 Ecosystems of watersheds 50 Post-fire ecosystems 53 Ecosystems of river valleys 57 Ecosystems of mountain tundras 64 CHAPTER 2. ESSAYS ON THE HABITAT DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF NEST ORGANIZATION OF THE ANTS 69 Myrmica kamtschatica Kupianskaya, 1986 71 Myrmica bicolor Kupianskaya, 1986 74 Myrmica sulcinodis Nylander, 1846 76 Myrmica angulinodis Ruzsky, 1905 76 Myrmica transsibirica Radtschenko, 1993 77 Leptothorax acervorum (Fabricius, 1793) 78 Leptothorax muscorum (Nylander, 1846) 91 Camponotus herculeanus (Linnaeus, 1758) 94 Camponotus saxatilis Ruzsky, 1885 97 Formica fusca Linnaeus, 1758 97 Formica lemani Bondroit, 1917 98 Formica truncorum Fabricius, 1804 108 Formica candida F. Smith, 1878 109 Formica gagatoides Ruzsky, 1904 114 Formica sanguinea Latreille, 1798 119 Formica exsecta Nylander, 1846 120 Formica aquilonia Yarrow, 1955 127 Formica lugubris Zetterstedt, 1840 127 Ant population 128 The place of ants in the soil macrofauna community 137 CHAPTER 3. OVERWINTERING TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS OF ANTS IN THE UPPER KOLYMA REGION 141 Methodological approaches 141 Air temperature 144 Snow cover 145 Lowest soil temperatures 147 Seasonal dynamics and extreme temperature in ant nests 158 Ranges of lowest temperatures in soils and in ant nests 178 CHAPTER 4. ANT COLD-HARDINESS AND ITS DETERMINING PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL FACTORS 182 Basic concepts of insect cold-hardiness 182 Equipment and methods of study 187 Supercooling point measurement 187 Determination of ant mortality under low sub-zero temperatures 193 Analysis of the chemical composition of ants 194 Dependence of temperature parameters of ant cold-hardiness on the composition of the studied samples 195 Eff ect of fullness of the crop on the cold-hardiness of ants in summer 195 Diff erences in the cold-hardiness of ants from different parts of the nest 199 Diff erences in the cold-hardiness of ants from different nests in the same area 201 Dependence of the cold-hardiness of overwintering ants on microclimatic conditions 202 Seasonal changes and determining physiological and biochemical factors of the cold-hardiness of ants in the Upper Kolyma region 203 Seasonal changes in the cold-hardiness of ants from the genera Myrmica, Camponotus and Leptothorax. 204 Seasonal changes in the cold-hardiness of ants of the genus Formica 212 Characteristics of emergence from overwintering in different species 216 Resistance of ants to long-term exposure to sub-zero temperatures 220 Dependence of ant mortality on duration of exposure 220 Dependence of ant mortality on temperature under long-term exposure 222 Cold-hardiness of ants from diff erent geographical populations 228 Overwintering conditions of ants in the environs Tvarminne, Kevo and Magadan 230 Cold-hardiness of ants in the environs Tvarminne, Kevo and Magadan 234 Cold-hardiness and climatic conditions 237 Some general results 241 CHAPTER 5. ON THE CONNECTION OF COLD-HARDINESS, OVERWINTERING TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANTS 243 Group I (L. acervorum, L. muscorum, C. herculeanus) 243 Group II (F. gagatoides, M. kamtschatica, M. bicolor) 249 Group III (F. candida, F. exsecta, F. sanguinea, F. lemani) 250 Is the geographical distribution of ants limited by their overwintering conditions? 256 On the possible role of biotic relationships in depletion of ant fauna 262 CONCLUSIONS 266 REFERENCES 275

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