Aonuma H, Watanabe T
Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0812, Japan.
Acta Biol Hung. 2012;63 Suppl 2:63-8. doi: 10.1556/ABiol.63.2012.Suppl.2.6.
The ant, Formica japonica, is polyphagous and workers hunt other insects as foods. In this study, interspecific aggression was examined in the workers and queens. Behavior experiments demonstrated that interspecific aggressiveness was significantly higher in workers than queens. Workers showed predatory aggressive behavior towards crickets, on the other hand, queens elicited threat behavior but they didn't attack crickets. In order to investigate neuronal mechanisms underlying regulation of aggressive motivation, the role of biogenic amine in the brain in evoking aggressive behavior was examined by measuring biogenic amine using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection (ECD). No significant difference in the octopamine (OA) level was found between workers and queens, but the level of N-acetyloctopamine (NacOA) in the brain of queens was significantly higher than that of workers. This study suggests that OAergic system in the brain must involve in controlling aggressive motivation in the ants.
日本蚁（Formica japonica）是多食性的，工蚁会捕食其他昆虫作为食物。在本研究中，对工蚁和蚁后的种间攻击性进行了检测。行为实验表明，工蚁的种间攻击性显著高于蚁后。工蚁对蟋蟀表现出捕食性攻击行为，而蚁后则表现出威胁行为，但它们并不攻击蟋蟀。为了研究攻击动机调节的神经机制，通过使用高效液相色谱（HPLC）结合电化学检测（ECD）测量生物胺，来检测大脑中生物胺在诱发攻击行为中的作用。工蚁和蚁后的章鱼胺（OA）水平没有显著差异，但蚁后大脑中的N-乙酰章鱼胺（NacOA）水平显著高于工蚁。本研究表明，大脑中的OA能系统必定参与控制蚂蚁的攻击动机。
