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To encompass irregular cell movement and mitotic events, we present a novel cell track-to-track association approach that rebuilds lineage trees through the pheromone field of a proposed ant colony optimization. With the constraint of maximum inter-frame displacement, the algorithm can link potential tracks by minimizing the proposed cost function considering both cell motion and morphology that mainly occurs on the fragmented intervals. Two different decisions are defined for ant colonies to predict mitotic and non-mitotic events used to construct relevant trail pheromone fields. A novel subsequent processing technique including threshold processing, trail merging and identity fusion is ultimately proposed, that makes full use of the spatial information of the pheromone field to realize track-to-track association. The proposed method has proven to be feasible and reliable on several challenging datasets.

Navigation is comprised of a variety of strategies which rely on multiple external cues to shape a navigator’s behavioral output. Here, we explored in the ant Veromessor pergandei, the interactions between the information provided by the pheromone trail and the home vector guided by the celestial compass. We found that a cross sensory interaction between the pheromone cue and the path integrator underlies correct orientation during the inbound journey. The celestial compass provides directional information, while the presence of the trail pheromone acts as a critical context cue, triggering distinct behaviors (vector orientation, search, and backtracking). While exposed to the pheromone, foragers orient to the vector direction regardless of vector state, while in the pheromone’s absence, the current remaining vector determines the forager’s navigational behavior. This interaction also occurs in foragers with no remaining path integrator, relying on the activation of a celestial compass-based memory of the previous trip. Such cue interactions maximize the foragers’ return to the nest and inhibit movement off the pheromone trail. Finally, our manipulations continuously rotated foragers away from their desired heading, yet foragers were proficient at counteracting these changes, steering to maintain a correct compass heading even at rotational speeds of ~ 40°/s.

The desert harvester ant (Veromessor pergandei) employs a mixture of social and individual navigational strategies at separate stages of their foraging trip. Individuals leave the nest along a pheromone-based column, travelling 3–40 m before spreading out to forage individually in a fan. Foragers use path integration while in this fan, accumulating a direction and distance estimate (vector) to return to the end of the column (column head), yet foragers’ potential use of path integration in the pheromone-based column is less understood. Here we show foragers rely on path integration both in the foraging fan and while in the column to return to the nest, using separate vectors depending on their current foraging stage in the fan or column. Returning foragers displaced while in the fan oriented and travelled to the column head location while those displaced after reaching the column travel in the nest direction, signifying the maintenance of a two-vector system with separate fan and column vectors directing a forager to two separate spatial locations. Interestingly, the trail pheromone and not the surrounding terrestrial cues mediate use of these distinct vectors, as fan foragers briefly exposed to the pheromone cues of the column in isolation altered their paths to a combination of the fan and column vectors. The pheromone acts as a contextual cue triggering both the retrieval of the column-vector memory and its integration with the forager’s current fan-vector.

Learning plays an important role in the life of many animals. In social insects, colony foraging success depends on the combined actions of many individuals and learning contributes to individual foraging success. In many ants, for example, route learning helps foragers to navigate between the nest and a food source. Here, we studied if the foraging success of a colony depends on the route-learning performance of its individuals. We used a doubly bifurcating T-maze to assess the route-learning performance of ants from 12 Lasius niger colonies. We also measured the propensity of workers to deposit trail pheromone and to explore the surrounding of their nest. We then tested colony foraging performance in a complex maze, set up either as a poor environment (one food source at the end of one tip), or a rich environment (a food source at the end of each tip). We found that individual learning performance was linked to colony foraging success in the rich, but not the poor environment. The propensity of individual ants to lay pheromone correlated negatively with their learning performance and only predicted colony foraging success in colonies with poor learning abilities in a rich environment. The strongest predictor of colony foraging success was exploratory activity, which differed consistently between colonies. Our results suggest that the importance of individual learning for colony foraging success depends on the environment and that explorative activity is an important factor for colony foraging success.

Creating a routing backbone is a fundamental problem in both biology and engineering. The routing backbone of the trail networks of arboreal turtle ants (Cephalotes goniodontus) connects many nests and food sources using trail pheromone deposited by ants as they walk. Unlike species that forage on the ground, the trail networks of arboreal ants are constrained by the vegetation. We examined what objectives the trail networks meet by comparing the observed ant trail networks with networks of random, hypothetical trail networks in the same surrounding vegetation and with trails optimized for four objectives: minimizing path length, minimizing average edge length, minimizing number of nodes, and minimizing opportunities to get lost. The ants’ trails minimized path length by minimizing the number of nodes traversed rather than choosing short edges. In addition, the ants’ trails reduced the opportunity for ants to get lost at each node, favoring nodes with 3D configurations most likely to be reinforced by pheromone. Thus, rather than finding the shortest edges, turtle ant trail networks take advantage of natural variation in the environment to favor coherence, keeping the ants together on the trails., Author summary We investigated the trail networks of arboreal turtle ants in the canopy of the tropical forest, to ask what characterizes the colony’s choice of foraging paths within the vegetation. We monitored day to day changes in the junctions and edges of trail networks of colonies in the dry forest of western Mexico. We compared the paths used by the ants to simulated random paths in the surrounding vegetation. We found that the paths of turtle ants prioritize coherence, keeping ants together on the trail, over minimizing the average edge length. The choice of paths reduces the number of junctions in the trail where ants could get lost, and favors junctions with a physical configuration that makes it likely that successive ants will reinforce the same path. Our work suggests that design principles that emphasize keeping information flow constrained to streamlined, coherent trails may be useful in human-designed distributed routing and transport networks or robot swarms.

Invasion by the Argentine ant Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) causes the collapse of global ecosystems. Attempts to exterminate this invasive ant have mostly been unsuccessful after colonization. However, some attempts are successful when they are applied in the initial stage of invasion, or the invaded area is limited. This indicates that early identification of invasion is crucial for successful extermination. The current methods of identification require special training and skills, suggesting that a new easy and fast method of identification is urgently required. Here, we report a method of identification using a species-specific trail pheromone. The Argentine ant uses (Z)-9-hexadecenal as a trail pheromone. (Z)-9-Hexadecenal is commercially available, because it is used to control the reproduction of a moth (Chilo suppressalis). We applied (Z)-9-hexadecenal 10 cm away from the trails of Argentine ants and 12 native Japanese ant species. The Argentine ant trails were largely disturbed, while the effect on the native Japanese ants was almost undetectable. These results suggest that this “trail disruption identification method” is an easy and fast method of identifying Argentine ants in Japan and that the effects of this method on native Japanese ants, if any exist, are small.

Four species of Tetramorium pavement ants are known to guide foraging activities of nestmates via trail pheromones secreted from the poison gland of worker ants, but the trail pheromone of T. immigrans is unknown. Our objectives were to (1) determine whether poison gland extract of T. immigrans workers induces trail-following behavior of nestmates, (2) identify the trail pheromone, and (3) test whether synthetic trail pheromone induces trail-following behavior of workers. In laboratory no-choice bioassays, ants followed poison-gland-extract trails farther than they followed whole-body-extract trails or solvent-control trails. Gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) analyses of poison gland extract revealed a single candidate pheromone component (CPC) that elicited responses from worker ant antennae. The CPC mass spectrum indicated, and an authentic standard confirmed, that the CPC was methyl 2-methoxy-6-methylbenzoate (MMMB). In further laboratory no-choice bioassays, ants followed poison-gland-extract trails (tested at 1 ant equivalent) and synthetic MMMB trails (tested at 0.35 ant equivalents) equally far, indicating that MMMB is the single-component trail pheromone of T. immigrans. Moreover, in laboratory two-choice bioassays, ants followed MMMB trails ~ 21-times farther than solvent-control trails. In field settings, when T. immigrans colonies were offered a choice between two paper strips treated with a synthetic MMMB trail or a solvent-control trail, each leading to an apple bait, the MMMB trails efficiently recruited nestmates to baits.

Local social interactions among individuals in animal groups generate collective behavior, allowing groups to adjust to changing conditions. Historically, scientists from different disciplines have taken different approaches to modeling collective behavior. We describe how each can contribute to the goal of understanding natural systems. Simple bottom-up models that describe individuals and their interactions directly have demonstrated that local interactions far from equilibrium can generate collective states. However, such simple models are not likely to describe accurately the actual mechanisms and interactions in play in any real biological system. Other classes of top-down models that describe group-level behavior directly have been proposed for groups where the function of the collective behavior is understood. Such models cannot necessarily explain why or how such functions emerge from first principles. Because modeling approaches have different strengths and weaknesses and no single approach will always be best, we argue that models of collective behavior that are aimed at understanding real biological systems should be formulated to address specific questions and to allow for validation. As examples, we discuss four forms of collective behavior that differ both in the interactions that produce the collective behavior and in ecological context, and thus require very different modeling frameworks. 1) Harvester ants use local interactions consisting of brief antennal contact, in which one ant assesses the cuticular hydrocarbon profile of another, to regulate foraging activity, which can be modeled as a closed-loop excitable system. 2) Arboreal turtle ants form trail networks in the canopy of the tropical forest, using trail pheromone; one ant detects the volatile chemical that another has recently deposited. The process that maintains and repairs the trail, which can be modeled as a distributed algorithm, is constrained by the physical configuration of the network of vegetation in which they travel. 3) Swarms of midges interact acoustically and non-locally, and can be well described as agents moving in an emergent potential well that is representative of the swarm as a whole rather than individuals. 4) Flocks of jackdaws change their effective interactions depending on ecological context, using topological distance when traveling but metric distance when mobbing. We discuss how different research questions about these systems have led to different modeling approaches.

Simple Summary Ants can be major pests to homeowners and other property owners. In the U.S., ants often rank as one of the most common and difficult-to-control pests around and in homes, businesses, and other facilities. Typically, ant control practices are conducted by licensed pest management professionals with sprays, baits, and granular products, containing various types of insecticides, applied to the outside perimeter of infested structures. Many of the insecticides used to control pest ants are harmful to non-target organisms, especially those in aquatic environments. To address these negative environmental impacts, research on alternative, generally low-impact and least toxic, ant control strategies has received a fair amount of attention. The underlying goal of this research is a reduction in human exposure to traditional insecticides. Examples of alternative approaches included in this review article include the use of essential oils and other chemicals as deterrents to ant nesting and foraging; ant trail pheromones as disruptants to foraging; mass trapping of ants; new gel baits containing extremely low concentrations of insecticide; and altering the behavior and distribution of ants by altering their access to food. Abstract Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), especially the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr), can be significant nuisance pests in urban and suburban environments. Conventional interventions have primarily relied on the use of chemical insecticides, namely fipronil and bifenthrin, applied as residual, contact treatments around the outside perimeter of infested structures. Despite tightening regulation limiting the scope of insecticide applications in urban settings, dependence on these products to manage ants continues, resulting in significant water contamination. The U.S. EPA, in response, has further restricted the use patterns of many insecticides used for ant control in professional and over-the-counter markets. The purpose of this review is to summarize the relevant literature associated with controlling nuisance pest ants, with emphasis on L. humile, without the use of liquid broadcast applications of EPA-registered insecticides while focusing on low-impact, alternative (to broadcast applications) pest control methods. Specific subsections include Trail Pheromone; Use of Behavior-Modifying Chemicals; Mass Trapping; Hydrogels, “Virtual” Baiting, and Exceedingly-Low Bait Concentrations; Food Source Reduction; Deterrents; and RNA Interference (RNAi).

Sophisticated social behaviors in termite colonies are mainly regulated via chemical communication of a wide range of pheromones. Trail pheromones play important roles in foraging behavior and building tunnels and nests in termites. However, it is almost unclear how termites perceive trail pheromones. Here, we cloned and sequenced of olfactory co-receptor (Orco) genes from the two termites Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) and Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki) (Isoptera: Termitidae), and then examined their responses to trail pheromones after silencing Orco through RNA interference (RNAi). We found that Orco knockdown impaired their ability to perceive trail pheromones and resulted in the disability of following pheromone trails in the two termite species. Our locomotion behavior assays further showed that Orco knockdown significantly decreased the distance and velocity in the two termite species, but significantly increased the angular velocity and turn angle in the termite R. chinensis. These findings strongly demonstrated that Orco is essential for termites to perceive their trail pheromones, which provides a potential way to control termite pests by damaging olfactory system.

Colony fitness is thought to be enhanced through task specialization by physical castes in social insect species that have evolved polymorphic workers. Using the exceptionally polymorphic ant Pheidole rhea as a model, we explored the relationship of worker size and behavior with respect to division of labor by morphologically variable subcastes, hypothesizing that the behavior of minor workers, soldiers, and supersoldiers would align with their social roles. We assayed the ability of different-size workers to detect trail pheromone, generate nest-search locomotion patterns, and recognize non-nestmates and respond with aggressive defense. Our analyses revealed that the largest size class of workers, supersoldiers, can detect trail pheromone at concentrations lower than those eliciting responses from either minors or soldiers. However, there were no size-related differences in locomotion patterns associated with nest-search behavior in a featureless arena, nor was there worker variation in responses to a non-nestmate conspecific. Although the striking polymorphism and allometry of workers suggest role divergence and division of labor in P. rhea, similarity in responses to stimuli associated with extranidal task performance may reflect the conservation of behavioral programs across strongly polymorphic workers.

Habituation to sex pheromones is one of the key mechanisms in mating disruption, an insect control tactic. Male moths often show reduced sexual response after pre-exposure to female sex pheromone. Mating disruption is relatively rare in insect orders other than Lepidoptera. As a positive control we confirmed habituation in a moth (Epiphyas postvittana) using 24 h pre-exposure to sex pheromone to reduce subsequent activation behaviour. We then tested the impact of pre-exposure to sex or trail pheromone on subsequent behavioural response with insects from three other orders. Similar pre-exposure for 24 h to either sex pheromone (Pseudococcus calceolariae (Homoptera) and apple leaf curling midge Dasineura mali (Diptera), or trail pheromone of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile (Hymenoptera)), followed by behavioural assay in clean air provided no evidence of habituation after pre-exposure in these latter cases. The moths alone were affected by pre-exposure to pheromone. For pests without habituation, sustained attraction to a point source may make lure and kill more economical. Improved knowledge of behavioural processes should lead to better success in pest management and mechanisms should be investigated further to inform studies and practical efforts generally enhancing effectiveness of pheromone-based management.

Mutualisms, such as the ones between ants and aphids, evolve and persist when benefits outweigh the costs from the interactions between the partners. We show here that the trail pheromone of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, can enhance these benefits by suppressing aphid dispersal and stimulating their reproduction. The ant's mutualistic partner, the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii, was found to readily perceive and respond to two specific trail pheromone components. Two pheromone components, Z,E-α-farnesene and E,E-α-farnesene, both suppressed walking dispersal of apterous aphids, whereas only the major pheromone component, Z,E-α-farnesene, also increased aphid reproduction rate. The ants, as well as the aphids, benefit from this inter-species function of the trail pheromone. For the ants it increases and prolongs the availability of honeydew as a key food source, whereas the aphid colony benefits from faster population growth and continuous ant-provided protection. These findings reveal a hitherto unknown mechanism by which ants and aphids both increase the benefits that they provide to each other, thereby likely enhancing the stability of their mutualistic relationship.

Disruption of foraging using oversupply of ant trail pheromones is a novel pest management application under investigation. It presents an opportunity to investigate the interaction of sensory modalities by removal of one of the modes. Superficially similar to sex pheromone-based mating disruption in moths, ant trail pheromone disruption lacks an equivalent mechanistic understanding of how the ants respond to an oversupply of their trail pheromone. Since significant compromise of one sensory modality essential for trail following (chemotaxis) has been demonstrated, we hypothesised that other sensory modalities such as thigmotaxis could act to reduce the impact on olfactory disruption of foraging behaviour. To test this, we provided a physical stimulus of thread to aid trailing by Argentine ants otherwise under disruptive pheromone concentrations. Trail following success was higher using a physical cue. While trail integrity reduced under continuous over-supply of trail pheromone delivered directly on the thread, provision of a physical cue in the form of thread slightly improved trail following and mediated trail disruption from high concentrations upwind. Our results indicate that ants are able to use physical structures to reduce but not eliminate the effects of trail pheromone disruption.

Animals may gather information from multiple sources, and these information sources may conflict. Theory predicts that, all else being equal, reliance on a particular information source will depend on its information content relative to other sources. Information conflicts are a good area in which to test such predictions. Social insects, such as ants, make extensive use of both private information (e.g. visual route memories) and social information (e.g. pheromone trails) when attempting to locate a food source. Importantly, eusocial insects collaborate on food retrieval, so both information use and information provision may be expected to vary with the information content of alternative information sources. Many ants, such as Lasius niger, are active both day and night. Variation in light levels represents an ecologically important change in the information content of visually-acquired route information. Here, we examine information use and information provision under high light levels (3200 lux, equivalent to a bright but overcast day), moderate light levels simulating dusk (10 lux) and darkness (0.007 lux, equivalent to a moonless night). Ants learn poorly, or not at all, in darkness. As light levels decrease, ants show decreasing reliance on private visual information, and a stronger reliance on social information, consistent with a ‘copy when uncertain’ strategy. In moderate light levels and darkness, pheromone deposition increases, presumably to compensate for the low information content of visual information. Varying light levels for cathemeral animals provides a powerful and ecologically meaningful method for examining information use and provision under varying levels of information content.

Division of labor in social insects has been explained by response threshold models which are based on differential responses to task-specific stimuli. In the present study, we argue that other types of stimuli, such as location-related cues, which are correlated with but not directly linked to task performance, may be significant. Using the black garden ant Lasius niger as a model, we focused on three groups of workers that perform extranidal tasks: (1) scouts, which explore new and unmarked areas remote from the nest; (2) patrollers, which are not recruited by other ants, but nonetheless walk outside in the nest vicinity; and (3) recruits, which are temporary foragers whose exit is triggered by recruitment. We used standardized tests to investigate, in a context-independent way, whether differences in task performance by these three groups could be correlated to intrinsic differences in their responsiveness to trail pheromone or to nest-related stimuli such as the presence of nestmates or colony odor. Overall, we found that the task profile of workers was correlated neither with their tendency to explore unmarked areas nor with their social attraction to nestmates. Scouts showed a lower attraction to colony odor and lower scores of trail following than recruits. Conversely, recruits were more attracted to colony chemical cues and showed lower response threshold to trail pheromone. Patrollers displayed behaviors between those of recruits and scouts. Our study thus shows that differences in ant responsiveness to location-related cues and recruitment trails contribute to the regulation of extranidal tasks in ants. Significance statement: Work organization in insect societies has been explained by models of differential response thresholds to stimuli that are directly linked to the performance of specific tasks. However, the task performance of individuals could also depend on their responsiveness to social and location-related cues that are correlated but not directly linked to these tasks. Using standardized context-independent tests, we found that scout ants, which explore unknown areas, display a lower responsiveness to colony area marking and trail pheromone. Conversely, recruits, which forage outside the nest only during food exploitation, are the most attracted to nestmates, colony area marking and trail pheromone. Patrollers display intermediate levels of attraction. Location-related cues could therefore play a role in determining the level of task performance by ants and should be taken into consideration in threshold models of task allocation., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Trail pheromones deposited by ants lead nestmates to food sources. Based on previous evidence that the trail pheromone of the carpenter ant Camponotus modoc originates from the hindgut, our objective in this study was to identify the key component(s) of the pheromone. We collected C. modoc colonies from conifer forests and maintained them in an outdoor enclosure near our laboratory for chemical analyses and behavioral experiments. In gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection and gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analyses of worker ant hindgut extracts, we identified five candidate components: 2,4-dimethylhexanoic acid, 2,4-dimethyl-5-hexanolide, pentadecane, dodecanoic acid and 3,4-dihydro-8-hydroxy-3,5,7-trimethylisocoumarin. In a series of trail-following experiments, ants followed trails of synthetic 2,4-dimethyl-5-hexanolide, a blend of the five compounds, and hindgut extract over similar distances, indicating that the hexanolide accounted for the entire behavioral activity of the hindgut extract. The hexanolide not only mediated orientation of C. modoc foragers on trails, it also attracted them over distance, indicating a dual function. Further analyses and bioassays with racemic and stereoselectively synthesized hexanolides revealed that the ants produce, and respond to, the (2S,4R,5S)-stereoisomer. The same stereoisomer is a trail pheromone component in several Camponotus congeners, indicating significant overlap in their respective trail pheromone communication systems.

The phenomenon of minimizing the path length to a target site in order to increase transport efficiency is described as path optimization, and it has been observed in many mammals, birds and some invertebrates like honeybees and ants. It has been demonstrated that ants can optimize their foraging path through an emergent process, involving the trail pheromone concentration, without individual ants having to measure and compare distances. In the current study, we investigated if ants that use only tandem running to recruit their nestmates can minimize their path while relocating their entire colony into a new nest. As colony relocation directly impacts the survival of the whole colony, it would be particularly important to optimize their path to the new nest. Using the ponerine ant Diacamma indicum, we conducted relocation experiments, in which ants had to choose between different defined paths and contrasted our findings with open arena experiments, as they navigate to their new nest. After following 4100 unique transports by 450 different transporters, we found that these ants minimize their path. Individual leaders, as well as colonies, choose the shorter path significantly more than the longer path, and they showed a significant preference for the shorter arm at multiple decision points on encountering a combination of paths. Thus, we concluded that tandem leaders are capable of path minimization based on the information they themselves collect. Further investigation into the proximate mechanisms by which they achieve this is required.

Electrophysiological recordings from the labial and maxillary palps of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, revealed their ability to detect several volatile chemicals, including water vapor and acetic acid. The results indicate that these appendages may play a large role in this beetle's assessment of its immediate environment. A. glabripennis is a highly destructive, invasive pest that feeds preferentially on maple - but accepts many other tree species - in North America, warranting USDA quarantine zones and an eradication program. While control and sampling techniques are being developed for this insect, a better understanding of its sensory capabilities is helpful. Electropalpograms (EPGs) revealed that both the maxillary and labial palps are highly sensitive to changes in humidity, indicating the presence of hygroreceptors and the likely important role of humidity in such things as feeding and finding water or oviposition sites. Strong EPG responses to a narrow set of volatile chemicals indicate that olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) on the palps may be tuned to a small number of volatile compounds. The types of odorant molecules eliciting responses indicate that there are likely both odorant receptors (ORs) as well as ionotropic receptors (IRs) expressed on the OSNs, enabling palp OSNs to be able to respond to acids and aldehydes such as acetic acid and butyraldehyde. There were no significant EPG responses to this species' trail-sex pheromone components, which may indicate that the trail pheromone is primarily perceived via gustatory receptors contacting the substrate. These results indicate that the palps have a role in the beetle's assessment of its immediate environment underfoot, and that the sampling of surface odors and humidity via mouth parts may be important to this species' success.

Anoplophora glabripennis has a complex suite of mate-finding behaviors, the functions of which are not entirely understood. These behaviors are elicited by a number of factors, including visual and chemical cues. Chemical cues include a male-produced volatile semiochemical acting as a long-range sex pheromone, a female-produced cuticular hydrocarbon blend serving as a sex-identification contact pheromone, and a recently identified female-produced trail sex pheromone that is followed by mate-seeking males. However, the sensory appendages and sensilla on these appendages used to detect the trail sex pheromone are unknown. We evaluated the ability of virgin male A. glabripennis to follow a sex pheromone trail after removal of the terminal four antennal segments and/or the maxillary and labial palps using a two-choice behavioral bioassay. We also tested the ability of males to follow the trail sex pheromone using volatile pheromone cues only, without physical contact with the pheromone. Results indicate that the palps are primarily responsible for sensing the pheromone, with males lacking palps unable to respond behaviorally to the trail sex pheromone. Under the conditions of this study, males could not follow the sex pheromone trail without direct contact, suggesting that olfaction may not be involved in detection of this pheromone. However, we did not determine to what degree the trail pheromone chemicals can volatilize under our experimental conditions. This work is important in elucidating the behaviors and sensory structures involved in mate-finding by this species on host trees, and these studies may help determine whether the trail sex pheromone has applications for monitoring and management.

Fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum (Agaricomytes: Gloeophyllates) is a brown rot wood-decay fungus which produces a vast spectrum of volatile secondary metabolites. Scientific publications state, that one of the metabolites produced by G. trabeum, can be the substance (3Z,6Z,8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol. This chemical substance is also the main component of trail-following pheromone of Rhinotermitidae termite family. In this diploma thesis, I was trying to verify whether various species of G. trabeum are in fact capable of producing the substance (3Z,6Z,8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol. I was also focusing on the effects of saccharides, present in nutrient solutions, on quantitative and qualitative change in composition of volatile secondary metabolites produced by G. trabeum. The saccharides I used for my research were - maltose, fructose, sucrose, xylose, and mannose. The analysis was made by using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography separation technique with time-of-flight mass spectrometric detection (GC×GC-TOFMS). During my research I discovered that one of obtained species of G. trabeum can produce substance (3Z,6Z,8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol, but only under specific conditions. It is produced when cultivating on Petri dishes on agar - cellulose growth media. The measurement was further validated by...

Animals may gather information from multiple sources, and these information sources may conflict. Theory predicts that, all else being equal, reliance on a particular information source will depend on its information content relative to other sources. Information conflicts are a good area in which to test such predictions. Social insects, such as ants, make extensive use of both private information (e.g. visual route memories) and social information (e.g. pheromone trails) when attempting to locate a food source. Importantly, eusocial insects collaborate on food retrieval, so both information use and information provision may be expected to vary with the information content of alternative information sources. Many ants, such as Lasius niger, are active both day and night. Variation in light levels represents an ecologically important change in the information content of visually-acquired route information. Here, we examine information use and information provision under high light levels (3200 lux), moderate light levels simulating dusk (10 lux) and darkness (0.007 lux). Ants fail to learn the location of a food source in darkness. As light levels decrease, ants show decreasing reliance on private visual information, and increasing pheromone trail following, consistent with a ‘copy when uncertain’ strategy. In moderate light levels and darkness, pheromone deposition increases, presumably to compensate for the low information content of visual information. Varying light levels for cathemeral animals provides a powerful and ecologically meaningful method for examining information use and provision under varying levels of information content.

Ants use pheromones to coordinate their communal activity. Volatile pyrazines, for instance, mediate food resource gathering and alarm behaviors in different ant species. Here we report that leaf-cutter ant-associated bacteria produce a family of pyrazines that includes members previously identified as ant trail and alarm pheromones. We found that L-threonine induces the bacterial production of the trail pheromone pyrazines, which are common for the host leaf-cutter ants. Isotope feeding experiments revealed that L-threonine along with sodium acetate were the biosynthetic precursors of these natural products and a biosynthetic pathway was proposed.

Termites use a range of semiochemicals to maintain the organization and integrity in their colonies. Among these semiochemicals, the trail pheromone is responsible for the orientation and recruitment of nestmates from the nest to the food sources. Trail pheromones in termites are secreted by a unique exocrine gland source, the sternal gland present in the abdominal sternites of all termite castes. In the majority of termite species, trail pheromone comprises a single compound. However, in the most advanced species, trail pheromone comprises two or, in one exception case, a blend of three compounds. In general, there is a clear difference between composition of trail pheromone in termite species from basal families and from those of more advanced families. Distinct responses of workers and soldiers to trail pheromone are observed as well as the response to trail pheromone from neighbouring colonies. The present chapter outlines the current states of knowledge of trail pheromones in termites.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:48:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-01 During foraging, worker ants are known for making use of many information sources to guide themselves in external environments, especially individual (memory) and social (trail pheromone) information. Both kinds of information act in a synergic way, keeping the foraging process efficient and organized. However, when social and individual information is conflicting face a trail bifurcation, it is necessary to establish a hierarchical order so prioritizing one of them. This study aims to verify which information (social or individual) is prioritized by Acromyrmex subterraneus workers when facing a bifurcation in a Y-trail system. Only one branch of the Y-trail leads to food resource and it had a section covered by filter paper where trail pheromone was deposited by workers. Pheromone deposition was here estimated by worker flow. After an individually marked forager (target-worker) made 1, 3 or 5 trips to the food resource, the filter paper was transferred to the branch which did not lead to the food. The time spent by target workers on branch selection and their right choice (branch with food) frequency were registered. Regardless of the target worker's previous trips to the resource, right choice frequency stood over 70%. In addition, the number of previous trips did not influence the time spent on decision making. However, the higher the flow of workers, the longer the time spent on decision making. By simulating a situation with conflicting information, it was possible to verify that a hierarchical order is established by A. subterraneus, which prioritized individual information (memory). (C) 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Entomologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. Univ Fed Juiz de Fora UFJF, Inst Ciencias Biol, MirmecoLab, Juiz De Fora, MG, Brazil Univ Estatal Paulista UNESP, Colegio Ciencias Agr, Dept Prod Vegetal, Botucatu, SP, Brazil Univ Fed Juiz de Fora UFJF, Inst Ciencias Biol, PPG Ecol, Juiz De Fora, MG, Brazil Univ Estatal Paulista UNESP, Colegio Ciencias Agr, Dept Prod Vegetal, Botucatu, SP, Brazil

Social animals rely heavily on social cues to make foraging decisions. In social insects such as ants, perceived use of paths by nestmates is an important cue which allows ants to adjust foraging behaviours. Ants that encounter other ants on a trail reduce trail pheromone deposition. This has been predicted to allow ants to preferentially select underused paths, and thus avoid overcrowding. Here we tested this hypothesis by providing ants with two identical paths to a feeder. On the treatment path we placed 10 ‘dummy ants’, i.e. glass beads coated in nestmate cuticular hydrocarbons, and on the control path 10 untreated beads. Contrary to expectations, ant colonies preferentially chose the treatment path. This preference was unrelated to pheromone deposition, as it arose before any pheromone was deposited. Ants performed more U-turns on the control path, and thus were more likely to switch paths if they entered the control path. Path preference disappeared when three of the untreated beads on the control path were replaced by dummy ants, demonstrating that it is the perceived absence of nestmates on a path, not the relative path use, that drives colony-level preference. By preferentially using paths containing nestmates, ants may benefit from increased information transfer and recruitment potential. The presence of nestmates on a path coupled with a lack of alarm pheromones may be a ‘reassurance’ that the path is safe and productive. Although ants have various mechanisms for coping with trail crowding, they in fact prefer paths that are already in use.