scholarly journals Speed and accuracy in nest-mate recognition: a hover wasp prioritizes face recognition over colony odour cues to minimize intrusion by outsiders

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1802) ◽  
pp. 20142750 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Baracchi ◽  
I. Petrocelli ◽  
L. Chittka ◽  
G. Ricciardi ◽  
S. Turillazzi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Social Wasp ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Colony Odour ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
Serious Injury

Social insects have evolved sophisticated recognition systems enabling them to accept nest-mates but reject alien conspecifics. In the social wasp, Liostenogaster flavolineata (Stenogastrinae), individuals differ in their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles according to colony membership; each female also possesses a unique (visual) facial pattern. This species represents a unique model to understand how vision and olfaction are integrated and the extent to which wasps prioritize one channel over the other to discriminate aliens and nest-mates. Liostenogaster flavolineata females are able to discriminate between alien and nest-mate females using facial patterns or chemical cues in isolation. However, the two sensory modalities are not equally efficient in the discrimination of ‘friend’ from ‘foe’. Visual cues induce an increased number of erroneous attacks on nest-mates (false alarms), but such attacks are quickly aborted and never result in serious injury. Odour cues, presented in isolation, result in an increased number of misses: erroneous acceptances of outsiders. Interestingly, wasps take the relative efficiencies of the two sensory modalities into account when making rapid decisions about colony membership of an individual: chemical profiles are entirely ignored when the visual and chemical stimuli are presented together. Thus, wasps adopt a strategy to ‘err on the safe side’ by memorizing individual faces to recognize colony members, and disregarding odour cues to minimize the risk of intrusion from colony outsiders.

scholarly journals Learning and discrimination of cuticular hydrocarbons in a social insect

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen van Wilgenburg ◽  
Antoine Felden ◽  
Dong-Hwan Choe ◽  
Robert Sulc ◽  
Jun Luo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chain Length ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Olfactory Conditioning ◽  
Argentine Ants ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Chemical Signalling ◽  
Branching Patterns

Social insect cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) mixtures are among the most complex chemical cues known and are important in nest-mate, caste and species recognition. Despite our growing knowledge of the nature of these cues, we have very little insight into how social insects actually perceive and discriminate among these chemicals. In this study, we use the newly developed technique of differential olfactory conditioning to pure, custom-designed synthetic colony odours to analyse signal discrimination in Argentine ants, Linepithema humile . Our results show that tri-methyl alkanes are more easily learned than single-methyl or straight-chain alkanes. In addition, we reveal that Argentine ants can discriminate between hydrocarbons with different branching patterns and the same chain length, but not always between hydrocarbons with the same branching patterns but different chain length. Our data thus show that biochemical characteristics influence those compounds that ants can discriminate between, and which thus potentially play a role in chemical signalling and nest-mate recognition.

scholarly journals Nest-mate recognition template of guard honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) is modified by wax comb transfer

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J Couvillon ◽  
Jamie P Caple ◽  
Samuel L Endsor ◽  
Martin Kärcher ◽  
Trudy E Russell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Colony Odour ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Unidirectional Transfer ◽  
Nest Mate Recognition ◽  
Wax Comb ◽  
Rejection Rates

In recognition, discriminators use sensory information to make decisions. For example, honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) entrance guards discriminate between nest-mates and intruders by comparing their odours with a template of the colony odour. Comb wax plays a major role in honeybee recognition. We measured the rejection rates of nest-mate and non-nest-mate worker bees by entrance guards before and after a unidirectional transfer of wax comb from a ‘comb donor’ hive to a ‘comb receiver’ hive. Our results showed a significant effect that occurred in one direction. Guards in the comb receiver hive became more accepting of non-nest-mates from the comb donor hive (rejection decreased from 70 to 47%); however, guards in the comb donor hive did not become more accepting of bees from the comb receiver hive. These data strongly support the hypothesis that the transfer of wax comb increases the acceptance of non-nest-mates not by changing the odour of the bees, but by changing the template used by guards.

scholarly journals Is parasite pressure a driver of chemical cue diversity in ants?

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1705) ◽  
pp. 496-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Martin ◽  
Heikki Helanterä ◽  
Falko P. Drijfhout
Keyword(s):  
Gene Diversity ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Chemical Cue ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Formica Fusca ◽  
Neutral Gene ◽  
The Uk

Parasites and pathogens are possibly key evolutionary forces driving recognition systems. However, empirical evidence remains sparse. The ubiquitous pioneering ant Formica fusca is exploited by numerous socially parasitic ant species. We compared the chemical cue diversity, egg and nest mate recognition abilities in two Finnish and two UK populations where parasite pressure is high or absent, respectively. Finnish populations had excellent egg and nest mate discrimination abilities, which were lost in the UK populations. The loss of discrimination behaviour correlates with a loss in key recognition compounds (C 25 -dimethylalkanes). This was not owing to genetic drift or different ecotypes since neutral gene diversity was the same in both countries. Furthermore, it is known that the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of non-host ant species remain stable between Finland and the UK. The most parsimonious explanation for the striking difference in the cue diversity (number of C 25 -dimethylalkanes isomers) between the UK and Finland populations is the large differences in parasite pressure experienced by F. fusca in the two countries. These results have strong parallels with bird (cuckoo) studies and support the hypothesis that parasites are driving recognition cue diversity.

scholarly journals A quantitative threshold for nest-mate recognition in a paper social wasp

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cini ◽  
Letizia Gioli ◽  
Rita Cervo
Keyword(s):  
Animal Communication ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Social Wasp ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Chemical Recognition ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Host Parasite ◽  
Nest Mate Recognition

Nest-mate recognition is fundamental for protecting social insect colonies from intrusion threats such as predators or social parasites. The aggression of resident females towards intruders is mediated by their cuticular semiochemicals. A positive relation between the amount of cues and responses has been widely assumed and often taken for granted, even though direct tests have not been carried out. This hypothesis has important consequences, since it is the basis for the chemical insignificance strategy, the most common explanation for the reduction in the amount of semiochemicals occurring in many social parasites. Here we used the social wasp Polistes dominulus , a model species in animal communication studies and host of three social parasites, to test this hypothesis. We discovered that different amounts of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) of a foreign female evoke quantitatively different behavioural reactions in the resident foundress. The relation between CHC quantity and the elicited response supports the idea that a threshold exists in the chemical recognition system of this species. The chemical insignificance hypothesis thus holds in a host–parasite system of Polistes wasps, even though other explanations should not be discarded.

scholarly journals Distributed nestmate recognition in ants

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1806) ◽  
pp. 20142838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Esponda ◽  
Deborah M. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Nestmate Recognition ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Adequate Response ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
The One ◽  
Unique Decision ◽  
Changes Over Time

We propose a distributed model of nestmate recognition, analogous to the one used by the vertebrate immune system, in which colony response results from the diverse reactions of many ants. The model describes how individual behaviour produces colony response to non-nestmates. No single ant knows the odour identity of the colony. Instead, colony identity is defined collectively by all the ants in the colony. Each ant responds to the odour of other ants by reference to its own unique decision boundary, which is a result of its experience of encounters with other ants. Each ant thus recognizes a particular set of chemical profiles as being those of non-nestmates. This model predicts, as experimental results have shown, that the outcome of behavioural assays is likely to be variable, that it depends on the number of ants tested, that response to non-nestmates changes over time and that it changes in response to the experience of individual ants. A distributed system allows a colony to identify non-nestmates without requiring that all individuals have the same complete information and helps to facilitate the tracking of changes in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles, because only a subset of ants must respond to provide an adequate response.

Sensory determinants of agonistic interactions in the red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (12) ◽  
pp. 1467-1489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle Duhaime-Ross ◽  
Geneviève Martel ◽  
Frédéric Laberge
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Plethodon Cinereus ◽  
Inanimate Object ◽  
Agonistic Interactions ◽  
Multimodal Signals ◽  
Sensory Modalities

Many animals use and react to multimodal signals — signals that occur in more than one sensory modality. This study focused on the respective roles of vision, chemoreception, and their possible interaction in determining agonistic responses of the red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. The use of a computer display allowed separate or combined presentation of visual and chemical cues. A cue isolation experiment using adult male and juvenile salamanders showed that both visual and chemical cues from unfamiliar male conspecifics could increase aggressive displays. Submissive displays were only increased in juveniles, and specifically by the visual cue. The rate of chemoinvestigation of the substrate was increased only by chemical cues in adults, whereas both chemical and visual cues increased this behaviour in juveniles. Chemoinvestigation appears, thus, more dependent on sensory input in juvenile salamanders. A follow-up experiment comparing responses to visual cues of different animals (conspecific salamander, heterospecific salamander and earthworm) or an inanimate object (wood stick) showed that exploratory behaviour was higher in the presence of the inanimate object stimulus. The heterospecific salamander stimulus produced strong submissive and escape responses, while the conspecific salamander stimulus promoted aggressive displays. Finally, the earthworm stimulus increased both aggressive and submissive behaviours at intermediate levels when compared to salamander cues. These specific combinations of agonistic and exploratory responses to each stimulus suggest that salamanders could discriminate the cues visually. This study sheds some light on how information from different sensory modalities guides social behaviour at different life stages in a salamander.

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