Take a ride with the hitchhiker ants: a systematic review

Abstract

Hitchhikers are minor workers of leaf cutting ants often observed on the foraging trails over the fragments that were being carried by foraging workers. Several studies began to be carried out to find out what is their function and, consequently, what are the reasons for exposing themselves to potential hazards. In order to enable a broad and comparative view about the hitchhikers occurrence, function, and factors there are most cited as triggers of this behaviour, we provide a systematic review, made in two databases: Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus, following the PRISMA protocol, which allowed us to compare the result of 12 papers. The most productive country in relation to published articles with hitchhikers was Brazil, while the journal with most publications was ENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA. The species mainly investigated were Atta cephalotes and Atta sexdens. Of the functions attributed to the hitchhikers: "Defense against parasitoids" was the most cited, what coincides with factor “Phorids presence”, the most cited one as trigger of the hitchhiker behavior: The most productive country result indicates an empowerment of brazilian researchers over the investigation of important native species. The study involving hitchhikers and their functions is still very precarious and needs more research involving a wider range of species allowing us to improve the knowledge about the functions, what factors trigger this amazing behavior and how these different factors could interact with each other.