Food resources, chemical signaling, and nest mate recognition in the ant Formica aquilonia |
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Authors: | Sorvari, Jouni Theodora, Pascal Turillazzi, Stefano Hakkarainen, Harri Sundstrom, Liselotte |
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Affiliation: | a Department of Biology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland b School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK c School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, New South Wales, Australia d Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e Genetica, Università di Firenze, Via Romana 17, I-50125 Firenze, Italy, and e Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO box 65, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland |
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Abstract: | Animals such as social insects that live in colonies can recognizeintruders from other colonies of the same or different speciesusing colony-specific odors. Such colony odors usually haveboth a genetic and an environmental origin. When within-colonyrelatedness is high (i.e., one or very few reproductive queens),colonies comprise genetically distinct entities, and recognitionbased on genetic cues is reliable. However, when nests containmultiple queens and colonies comprise multiple nests (polydomy),the use of purely genetically determined recognition labelsmay become impractical. This is due to high within-colony geneticheterogeneity and low between-colony genetic heterogeneity.This may favor the use of environmentally determined recognitionlabels. However, because nests within polydomous colonies maydiffer in their microenvironment, the use of environmental labelsmay also be impractical unless they are actively mixed amongthe nests. Using a laboratory experiment, we found that bothisolation per se and diet composition influenced the cuticularchemical profiles in workers of Formica aquilonia. In addition,the level of aggression increased when both the proportionsof dietary ingredients and the availability of food were altered.This suggests that increased aggression was mediated by changesin the chemical profile and that environmental cues can mediaterecognition between colonies. These results also suggest thatthe underlying recognition cues are mutable in response to extrinsicfactors such as the amount and the composition of food. |
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Keywords: | aggressive behavior colony odor cuticular hydrocarbons diet social insects. |
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