Effect of extracts of Croton urucurana Baill: on Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel

• Grant number: 11/20019-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Applied Botany
• Principal Investigator: Déborah Yara Alves Cursino dos Santos
• Grantee: Milena Timich
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/06845-0 - Toxicity tests of plants of southern China on Solenopsis invicta Buren: three bioassays, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

The leaf-cutting ants, of the genus Atta and tribe Attini, which belong to the subfamily Myrmicinae, cause serious damage to Brazilian agriculture. They stand out for being one of the main insect plagues of the tropical and subtropical regions of the American continent. Croton urucurana extracts caused significant mortality in Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae, indicating a possible use as a natural insecticide. The main goal of this project is to evaluate the effect of the extracts, obtained with different solvents of Croton urucurana leaves, on Atta sexdens rubropilosa worker ants. The ants are maintained in the laboratory. The hexane, dichlorometane and methanol extracts will be obtained through Soxhlet apparatus and the ants will be collected from the ant-hills of the Phytochemistry Laboratory of the Botanic Department, IB-USP. Toxicity experiments through contact will be executed by applying different concentrations of the extracts on the insect's pronotum. The number of dead ants will be registered every 24h during 25 days. Five replicates will be built for each treatment and the results will be analyzed through ANOVA. When differences are detected, the data will be submitted to the Tukey test.(AU)