Publications by authors named "Itanna Fernandes"
Human-driven changes in land cover and use can significantly impact species ants community structures, often leading to a decline in taxonomic diversity or species homogenization. Ant morphology, used as a proxy for ecological function, offers a valuable framework for understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on ant diversity. This study explored the morphological diversity of ant assemblages in agricultural ecosystems and secondary forests in Italy and the Brazilian Amazon, analyzing how these communities are structured and adapted to different environments.
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- The study revises the taxonomy of Neotropical Odontomachus ant species, identifying four new species and synonymizing one, resulting in a total of 27 recognized species in the region.
- It includes detailed descriptions of worker ants, gynes (queens), and males, along with high-quality images and dichotomous keys to aid identification.
- The findings also highlight morphological variabilities that suggest the presence of cryptic species and emphasize the need for further research on male genitalia to understand species relationships better.
Article Synopsis
- Tropical biodiversity is facing significant changes due to intensified hydrological cycles, resulting in more severe droughts and wet seasons, which raises concerns about the resilience of ecosystems.
- A 20-year study in Central Amazonia assessed the impacts of these climate changes on bird, fish, ant, and palm communities, revealing distinct responses where animals were more affected by sudden climate extremes, while palm species showed more stability over time.
- The research indicated that while the 'insurance effect' helped moderate long-term impacts of climate events on biodiversity, the anticipated 'environmental refugia' did not effectively protect species during extreme weather conditions, highlighting the complex resilience of ecosystems amidst climate change.
The state of Par in northern Brazil is located entirely within the Amazon Basin and harbors a great diversity of landscape and vegetation types that support high levels of biodiversity. Here, we provide a comprehensive inventory of ant species and their distribution in Par. This regional list is based on an extensive review of species records from published and unpublished sources covering a period of 134 years (18862020) and includes the five most representative ant collections in Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnts, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe foetida species complex comprises 13 Neotropical species in the ant genus Neoponera. Neoponera villosa Fabricius (1804) , Neoponera inversa Smith (1858), Neoponera bactronica Fernandes, Oliveira & Delabie (2013), and Neoponera curvinodis (Forel, 1899) have had an ambiguous taxonomic status for more than two decades. In southern Bahia, Brazil, these four species are frequently found in sympatry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Biodiversity loss is accelerating rapidly in response to increasing human influence on the Earth's natural ecosystems. One way to overcome this problem is by focusing on places of human interest and monitoring the changes and impacts on the biodiversity. This study was conducted at six sites within the influence area of the Santo Antônio Hydroelectric Power Plant in the margins of the Madeira River in Rondônia State.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genus Simopelta consists of 21 described species restricted to Central America and South America. The present study describes a new cryptobiotic species, Simopelta anomma sp. nov.
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