Sobre el autor/Publicaciones
Estudio el comportamiento de animales que viven en sociedades, para entender cómo se organizan el trabajo, y cómo las necesidades de la sociedad afectan el comportamiento de sus individuos. Principalmente trabajo con hormigas (y ocasionalmente con plantas, pero para otras preguntas), y he estudiado especialmente a las hormigas de las acacias (o del cornizuelo) que sirven para tratar de entender cómo las asociaciones con plantas afectan la vida en sociedad de las hormigas de las acacias (Pseudomyrmex). También me interesa investigar la plasticidad del comportamiento (ej. en memoria y orientación espacial) y cómo puede estar limitada o favorecida por la historia natural de las hormigas. Aquí les dejo algunas de mis publicaciones. --
I study animal behavior of social insects, to understand how they organize labor and how society needs affect the behavior of society members. I mainly work with ants (and occasionally with plants, but for answering other learning-related questions), and I have specialized in acacia ants. Acacia ants (Pseudomyrmex) help us understanding how the association with a plant affects the social life of the ants. I am also interested in studying plasticity of behavior in memory and spatial orientation, and how it could be evolutionarily limited or favored by the natural history of the ants. Here are some of my publications.
Amador-Vargas, S., W. Gronenberg, W. Wcislo, U. G. Mueller. 2015. Specialization and group size: brain and behavioural correlates of colony size in ants lacking morphological castes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2502
Farji-Brener, A.G., Chinchilla, F., Umaña M.N., Ocasio-Torres M., Chauta-Mellizo A., Acosta-Rojas D., Marinaro S., de Torres Curth M., and Amador-Vargas, S. 2015. Branching angles reflect a tradeoff between reducing trail maintenance costs or travel distances in leaf-cutting ants. Ecology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-0220.1
Amador-Vargas, S., Dominguez, M., León, G., Maldonado, B., Murillo, J., & Vides, G. L. 2014. Leaf-folding response of a sensitive plant shows context-dependent behavioral plasticity. Plant Ecology, 1–10. doi:10.1007/s11258-014-0401-4.
Amador-Vargas S. 2012. Run, robber, run: parasitic acacia ants use speed and evasion to steal food from ant-defended trees. Physiological Entomology 37: 323-329. pdf
Amador-Vargas S. 2012. Behavioral responses of acacia ants correlate with age and location on the host plant. Insectes Sociaux. 59(3): 341-350.pdf
Amador-Vargas, S. 2012. Plant killing by mutualistic ants increases the density of host species seedlings in the dry forest of Costa Rica. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology 2012: 1-6. pdf
Amador-Vargas S, Martínez J.A, Giraldo-Beltrán P., González R.M., Rifkin S., Gamarra-Toledo V. 2011. Ant body posture: gaster curling increases ant speed. Ecological Entomology 36: 663-666. pdf
Farji-Brener A. G., Amador-Vargas S., Chinchilla F., Escobar S., Cabrera S., Herrera M. I. & Sandoval C. 2010. Information transfer in head-on encounters between leaf-cutting ant workers: food, trail condition or orientation cues? Animal Behaviour 79: 343–349. pdf
Farji-Brener A. G., Chinchilla F. A, Magrach A., Romero V, Ríos M, Velilla M, Serrano JM & Amador-Vargas S. 2009. Slope orientation enhances the nurse effect of a paramo shrub, Hypericum irazuense (Hypericaceae) in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 25:331-335. pdf
Amador-Vargas, S. 2008. Spartan defense in the Thermopylae pass: Strategic defense by aggregations of Pseudomyrmex spinicola (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) on the trunk of Acacia collinsii (Mimosaceae). Insectes Sociaux, 55, 241-245. pdf