Scent of a queen—cuticular hydrocarbons specific for female reproductives in lower termites

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 96 - Trang 315-319 - 2008
Tobias Weil1,2, Katharina Hoffmann3, Johannes Kroiss1, Erhard Strohm1, Judith Korb3
1Biology I, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
2Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Regensburg, Germany
3Behavioral Biology, University of Osnabrueck, Osnabrueck, Germany

Tóm tắt

In social insects, it is assumed that signals of the queen inform nestmates about her reproductive status. Thus, workers forego their own reproduction if the queen signals high fertility. In hemimetabolous termites, little is known about reproductive inhibition, but evidence exists for a royal-pair control. Workers of lower termites exhibit a high developmental flexibility and are potentially able to become reproductives, but the presence of a fertile reproductive restrains them from reaching sexual maturity. The nature of this control, however, remains unknown. Here, we report on qualitative differences in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles between queens and workers of the basal drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus. Queens were characterized by a shift to long-chained and branched hydrocarbons. Most remarkably, similar chemical patterns are regarded as fertility cues of reproductives in social Hymenoptera. This might suggest that both groups of social insects convergently evolved similar chemical signatures. The present study provides deeper insights into how termites might have socially exploited these signatures from sexual communication in their cockroach-like ancestor.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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