The mandible opening response: quantifying aggression elicited by chemical cues in ants
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
The mandible opening response: quantifying aggression elicited by chemical cues in ants. / Guerrieri, Fernando J; d'Ettorre, Patrizia.
In: Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol. 211, No. Pt 7, 2008, p. 1109-13.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - The mandible opening response: quantifying aggression elicited by chemical cues in ants
AU - Guerrieri, Fernando J
AU - d'Ettorre, Patrizia
N1 - Keywords: Aggression; Animals; Ants; Cues; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Hydrocarbons; Phylogeny; Stomatognathic System
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Social insects have evolved efficient recognition systems guaranteeing social cohesion and protection from enemies. To defend their territories and threaten non-nestmate intruders, ants open their mandibles as a first aggressive display. Albeit chemical cues play a major role in discrimination between nestmates and non-nestmates, classical bioassays based on aggressive behaviour were not particularly effective in disentangling chemical perception and behavioural components of nestmate recognition by means of categorical variables. We therefore developed a novel bioassay that accurately isolates chemical perception from other cues. We studied four ant species: Camponotus herculeanus, C. vagus, Formica rufibarbis and F. cunicularia. Chemical analyses of cuticular extracts of workers of these four species showed that they varied in the number and identity of compounds and that species of the same genus have more similar profiles. The antennae of harnessed ants were touched with a glass rod coated with the cuticular extract of (a) nestmates, (b) non-nestmates of the same species, (c) another species of the same genus and (d) a species of a different genus. The mandible opening response (MOR) was recorded as the aggressive response. In all assayed species, MOR significantly differed among stimuli, being weakest towards nestmate odour and strongest towards odours originating from ants of a different genus. We thus introduce here a new procedure suitable for studying the chemical basis of aggression in ants.
AB - Social insects have evolved efficient recognition systems guaranteeing social cohesion and protection from enemies. To defend their territories and threaten non-nestmate intruders, ants open their mandibles as a first aggressive display. Albeit chemical cues play a major role in discrimination between nestmates and non-nestmates, classical bioassays based on aggressive behaviour were not particularly effective in disentangling chemical perception and behavioural components of nestmate recognition by means of categorical variables. We therefore developed a novel bioassay that accurately isolates chemical perception from other cues. We studied four ant species: Camponotus herculeanus, C. vagus, Formica rufibarbis and F. cunicularia. Chemical analyses of cuticular extracts of workers of these four species showed that they varied in the number and identity of compounds and that species of the same genus have more similar profiles. The antennae of harnessed ants were touched with a glass rod coated with the cuticular extract of (a) nestmates, (b) non-nestmates of the same species, (c) another species of the same genus and (d) a species of a different genus. The mandible opening response (MOR) was recorded as the aggressive response. In all assayed species, MOR significantly differed among stimuli, being weakest towards nestmate odour and strongest towards odours originating from ants of a different genus. We thus introduce here a new procedure suitable for studying the chemical basis of aggression in ants.
U2 - 10.1242/jeb.008508
DO - 10.1242/jeb.008508
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 18344485
VL - 211
SP - 1109
EP - 1113
JO - Journal of Experimental Biology
JF - Journal of Experimental Biology
SN - 0022-0949
IS - Pt 7
ER -
ID: 9615826