scholarly journals Chemical Integration of Myrmecophilous Guests inAphaenogasterAnt Nests

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Lenoir ◽  
Quentin Chalon ◽  
Ana Carvajal ◽  
Camille Ruel ◽  
Ángel Barroso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Insect ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Chemical Mimicry ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Beetle Species ◽  
Cleaning Symbiosis ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profile ◽  
Aphaenogaster Senilis ◽  
Colony Odour ◽  
Host Colony

Social insect nests provide a safe and favourable shelter to many guests and parasites. InAphaenogaster senilisnests many guests are tolerated. Among them we studied the chemical integration of two myrmecophile beetles,Sternocoelis hispanus(Coleoptera: Histeridae) andChitosa nigrita(Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), and a silverfish. Silverfishes bear low quantities of the host hydrocarbons (chemical insignificance), acquired probably passively, and they do not match the colony odour. Both beetle species use chemical mimicry to be accepted; they have the same specific cuticular hydrocarbon profile as their host. They also match the ant colony odour, but they keep some specificity and can be recognised by the ants as a different element.Sternocoelisare always adopted in other conspecific colonies ofA. seniliswith different delays. They are adopted in the twin speciesA. ibericabut never inA. simonelliiorA. subterranea. They are readopted easily into their mother colony after an isolation of different durations until one month. After isolation they keep their hydrocarbons quantity, showing that they are able to synthesize them. Nevertheless, their profile diverges from the host colony, indicating that they adjust it in contact with the hosts. This had never been demonstrated before in myrmecophile beetles. We suggest that the chemical mimicry ofSternocoelisis the result of a coevolution withA. seniliswith a possible cleaning symbiosis.

A synopsis of the Brazilian Eucharitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) fauna: an annotated checklist of the family in the country, with a revised key for the New World genera

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4564 (2) ◽  
pp. 347
Author(s):  
THIAGO S. R. SILVA ◽  
JULIANA M. SILVA-FREITAS ◽  
KARINE SCHOENINGER
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
New Record ◽  
New World ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profile ◽  
Hydrocarbon Profile ◽  
Annotated List ◽  
The Family ◽  
Annotated Checklist

The current work provides a revised and updated key to the genera of Eucharitidae occurring in the New World, with the major traits of genera illustrated through high-resolution photomicrography. We provide an annotated list of genera and species currently known from Brazil, with a new record for a genus previously unknown for the country. Additionally, we provide a literature revision of the biology and cuticular hydrocarbon profile for the Eucharitidae. The lack of knowledge on the eucharitid Brazilian fauna is briefly discussed. 

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 The cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of honey bee workers develop via a socially-modulated innate process

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassondra L Vernier ◽  
Joshua J Krupp ◽  
Katelyn Marcus ◽  
Abraham Hefetz ◽  
Joel D Levine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Specific Chemical ◽  
Behavioral Interactions ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Environmentally Sensitive ◽  
Honey Bee Workers

Large social insect colonies exhibit a remarkable ability for recognizing group members via colony-specific cuticular pheromonal signatures. Previous work suggested that in some ant species, colony-specific pheromonal profiles are generated through a mechanism involving the transfer and homogenization of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) across members of the colony. However, how colony-specific chemical profiles are generated in other social insect clades remains mostly unknown. Here we show that in the honey bee (Apis mellifera), the colony-specific CHC profile completes its maturation in foragers via a sequence of stereotypic age-dependent quantitative and qualitative chemical transitions, which are driven by environmentally-sensitive intrinsic biosynthetic pathways. Therefore, the CHC profiles of individual honey bees are not likely produced through homogenization and transfer mechanisms, but instead mature in association with age-dependent division of labor. Furthermore, non-nestmate rejection behaviors seem to be contextually restricted to behavioral interactions between entering foragers and guards at the hive entrance.

Biological and genetic characterization of morphologically similar Therioaphis trifolii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) with different host utilization

1997 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sunnucks ◽  
F. Driver ◽  
W. V. Brown ◽  
M. Carver ◽  
D. F. Hales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Characterization ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Trifolium Subterraneum ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profile ◽  
Rapd Pcr ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Western Palaearctic

AbstractThe aphid Therioaphis trifolii (Monell) is indigenous to the western Palaearctic region, where it colonizes lucerne (alfalfa), clovers and related legumes. A form of the species, T. trifolii f. maculata (the spotted alfalfa aphid, SAA), has been known in Australia since 1977, feeding almost exclusively on Medicago sativa (lucerne). Since 1989, T. trifolii has been found in Australia colonizing Trifolium subterraneum (subclover). We have compared samples of T. trifolii in Australia collected on lucerne and subclover using several techniques: survival and reproduction on different hosts, morphology, cuticular hydrocarbon profile, karyology, and a combination of RAPD-PCR and mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome oxidase) genetic markers. Whereas there were no distinct differences in cuticular hydrocarbons and karyology, we found significant correlated differences between the host on which aphids were collected, some morphological characters, and the genotypes of the aphids. Aphids collected from lucerne were always of one genetic type, and nearly all those from subclover were of another. Both groups of aphids are morphologically distinguishable from the yellow clover aphid (YCA), the other form of the species recognized so far. We conclude that the clover-colonizers (spotted clover aphid, SCA) and the lucerne-colonizers (SAA) are each host-restricted forms (biotypes) of T. trifolii. Estimates of mtDNA divergence are in the range of conspecific to closely congeneric, as compared with other insects including aphids. We developed simple diagnostic DNA tests to distinguish the two pest aphids.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document