The Effect of Diet on Colony Recognition and Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profiles of the Invasive Argentine Ant, .

Ants are some of the most abundant and ecologically successful terrestrial organisms, and invasive ants rank among the most damaging invasive species. The Argentine ant is a particularly well-studied invader, in part, because of the extreme social structure, known as , that occurs in introduced populations. Unicoloniality is characterized by the formation of geographically vast supercolonies, within which territorial behavior and intraspecific aggression are absent.

Density of antennal sensilla influences efficacy of communication in a social insect.

Effective communication requires reliable signals and competent receptors. Theoretical and empirical accounts of animal signaling focus overwhelmingly on the capacity of the signaler to convey the message. Nevertheless, the intended receiver's ability to detect a signal depends on the condition of its receptor organs, as documented for humans.

Confirmation bias in studies of nestmate recognition: a cautionary note for research into the behaviour of animals.

Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to interpret information in a way that confirms their expectations. A long recognized phenomenon in human psychology, confirmation bias can distort the results of a study and thus reduce its reliability. While confirmation bias can be avoided by conducting studies blind to treatment groups, this practice is not always used.

Collective retention and transmission of chemical signals in a social insect.

Social insect colonies exhibit highly coordinated responses to ecological challenges by acquiring information that is disseminated throughout the colony. Some responses are coordinated directly from the signals produced by individuals that acquired the information. Other responses may require information to be transferred indirectly through a third party, thereby requiring colony-wide retention of information.

Learning and discrimination of cuticular hydrocarbons in a social insect.

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.

Nestmate recognition in social insects: overcoming physiological constraints with collective decision making.

Social insects rank among the most abundant and influential terrestrial organisms. The key to their success is their ability to form tightly knit social groups that perform work cooperatively, and effectively exclude non-members from the colony. An extensive body of research, both empirical and theoretical, has explored how optimal acceptance thresholds could evolve in individuals, driven by the twin costs of inappropriately rejecting true nestmates and erroneously accepting individuals from foreign colonies.

Deciphering the chemical basis of nestmate recognition.

Social insects maintain colony cohesion by recognizing and, if necessary, discriminating against conspecifics that are not part of the colony. This recognition ability is encoded by a complex mixture of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), although it is largely unclear how social insects interpret such a multifaceted signal. CHC profiles often contain several series of homologous hydrocarbons, possessing the same methyl branch position but differing in chain length (e.

The global expansion of a single ant supercolony.

Ants are among the most damaging invasive species, and their success frequently arises from the widespread cooperation displayed by introduced populations, often across hundreds of kilometers. Previous studies of the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) have shown that introduced populations on different continents each contain a single, vast supercolony and, occasionally, smaller secondary colonies. Here, we perform inter-continental behavioral analyses among supercolonies in North America, Europe, Asia, Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia and show that these far-flung supercolonies also recognize and accept each other as if members of a single, globally distributed supercolony.

The scent of supercolonies: the discovery, synthesis and behavioural verification of ant colony recognition cues.

Background: Ants form highly social and cooperative colonies that compete, and often fight, against other such colonies, both intra- and interspecifically. Some invasive ants take sociality to an extreme, forming geographically massive 'supercolonies' across thousands of kilometres. The success of social insects generally, as well as invasive ants in particular, stems from the sophisticated mechanisms used to accurately and precisely distinguish colonymates from non-colonymates.

Experience influences aggressive behaviour in the Argentine ant.

All animals interact with conspecifics during their life, and nearly all also display some form of aggression. An enduring challenge, however, is to understand how the experiences of an individual animal influence its later behaviours. Several studies have shown that prior winning experience increases the probability of initiating fights in later encounters.

An absence of aggression between non-nestmates in the bull ant Myrmecia nigriceps.

The ability of social insects to discriminate against non-nestmates is vital for maintaining colony integrity, and in most social insect species, individuals act aggressively towards non-nestmates that intrude into their nest. Our experimental field data revealed that intra-colony aggression in the primitive bulldog ant Myrmecia nigriceps is negligible; our series of bioassays revealed no significant difference in the occurrence of aggression in trials involving workers from the same, a close (less than 300 m) or a far (more than 1.5 km) nest.

Single locus complementary sex determination in Hymenoptera: an "unintelligent" design?

The haplodiploid sex determining mechanism in Hymenoptera (males are haploid, females are diploid) has played an important role in the evolution of this insect order. In Hymenoptera sex is usually determined by a single locus, heterozygotes are female and hemizygotes are male. Under inbreeding, homozygous diploid and sterile males occur which form a genetic burden for a population.