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Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members

Ants deposit trail pheromones that guide nestmates to food sources. We tested the hypotheses that ant community members (Western carpenter ants, Camponotus modoc; black garden ants, Lasius niger; European fire ants, Myrmica rubra) (1) sense, and follow, each other’s trail pheromones, and (2) fail to...

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Autores principales: Chalissery, Jaime M., Renyard, Asim, Gries, Regine, Hoefele, Danielle, Alamsetti, Santosh Kumar, Gries, Gerhard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6921000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31683791
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110383
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author Chalissery, Jaime M.
Renyard, Asim
Gries, Regine
Hoefele, Danielle
Alamsetti, Santosh Kumar
Gries, Gerhard
author_facet Chalissery, Jaime M.
Renyard, Asim
Gries, Regine
Hoefele, Danielle
Alamsetti, Santosh Kumar
Gries, Gerhard
author_sort Chalissery, Jaime M.
collection PubMed
description Ants deposit trail pheromones that guide nestmates to food sources. We tested the hypotheses that ant community members (Western carpenter ants, Camponotus modoc; black garden ants, Lasius niger; European fire ants, Myrmica rubra) (1) sense, and follow, each other’s trail pheromones, and (2) fail to recognize trail pheromones of allopatric ants (pavement ants, Tetramorium caespitum; desert harvester ants, Novomessor albisetosus; Argentine ants, Linepithema humilis). In gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection analyses of a six-species synthetic trail pheromone blend (6-TPB), La. niger, Ca. modoc, and M. rubra sensed the trail pheromones of all community members and unexpectedly that of T. caespitum. Except for La. niger, all species did not recognize the trail pheromones of N. albisetosus and Li. humilis. In bioassays, La. niger workers followed the 6-TPB trail for longer distances than their own trail pheromone, indicating an additive effect of con- and hetero-specific pheromones on trail-following. Moreover, Ca. modoc workers followed the 6-TPB and their own trail pheromones for similar distances, indicating no adverse effects of heterospecific pheromones on trail-following. Our data show that ant community members eavesdrop on each other’s trail pheromones, and that multiple pheromones can be combined in a lure that guides multiple species of pest ants to lethal food baits.
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spelling pubmed-69210002019-12-24 Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members Chalissery, Jaime M. Renyard, Asim Gries, Regine Hoefele, Danielle Alamsetti, Santosh Kumar Gries, Gerhard Insects Article Ants deposit trail pheromones that guide nestmates to food sources. We tested the hypotheses that ant community members (Western carpenter ants, Camponotus modoc; black garden ants, Lasius niger; European fire ants, Myrmica rubra) (1) sense, and follow, each other’s trail pheromones, and (2) fail to recognize trail pheromones of allopatric ants (pavement ants, Tetramorium caespitum; desert harvester ants, Novomessor albisetosus; Argentine ants, Linepithema humilis). In gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection analyses of a six-species synthetic trail pheromone blend (6-TPB), La. niger, Ca. modoc, and M. rubra sensed the trail pheromones of all community members and unexpectedly that of T. caespitum. Except for La. niger, all species did not recognize the trail pheromones of N. albisetosus and Li. humilis. In bioassays, La. niger workers followed the 6-TPB trail for longer distances than their own trail pheromone, indicating an additive effect of con- and hetero-specific pheromones on trail-following. Moreover, Ca. modoc workers followed the 6-TPB and their own trail pheromones for similar distances, indicating no adverse effects of heterospecific pheromones on trail-following. Our data show that ant community members eavesdrop on each other’s trail pheromones, and that multiple pheromones can be combined in a lure that guides multiple species of pest ants to lethal food baits. MDPI 2019-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6921000/ /pubmed/31683791 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110383 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chalissery, Jaime M.
Renyard, Asim
Gries, Regine
Hoefele, Danielle
Alamsetti, Santosh Kumar
Gries, Gerhard
Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title_full Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title_fullStr Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title_full_unstemmed Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title_short Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community Members
title_sort ants sense, and follow, trail pheromones of ant community members
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6921000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31683791
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110383
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