Roux Olivier, Rossi Vivien, Céréghino Régis, Compin Arthur, Martin Jean-Michel, Dejean Alain
CNRS, Écologie des Forêts de Guyane (UMR-CNRS 8172), 97387 Kourou Cedex, France.
Behav Processes. 2013 Sep;98:51-7. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.04.014. Epub 2013 Apr 30.
Because territoriality is energetically costly, territorial animals frequently respond less aggressively to neighbours than to strangers, a reaction known as the "dear enemy phenomenon" (DEP). The contrary, the "nasty neighbour effect" (NNE), occurs mainly for group-living species defending resource-based territories. We studied the relationships between supercolonies of the pest fire ant Solenopsis saevissima and eight ant species able to live in the vicinity of its nests plus Eciton burchellii, an army ant predator of other ants. The workers from all of the eight ant species behaved submissively when confronted with S. saevissima (dominant) individuals, whereas the contrary was never true. Yet, S. saevissima were submissive towards E. burchellii workers. Both DEP and NNE were observed for the eight ant species, with submissive behaviours less frequent in the case of DEP. To distinguish what is due to chemical cues from what can be attributed to behaviour, we extracted cuticular compounds from all of the nine ant species compared and transferred them onto a number of S. saevissima workers that were then confronted with untreated conspecifics. The cuticular compounds from three species, particularly E. burchellii, triggered greater aggressiveness by S. saevissima workers, while those from the other species did not.
由于领地行为在能量上代价高昂，领地性动物对邻居的攻击性通常比对陌生者的攻击性要弱，这种反应被称为“亲爱的敌人现象”（DEP）。相反，“讨厌的邻居效应”（NNE）主要发生在保卫基于资源的领地的群居物种中。我们研究了害虫火蚁红火蚁（Solenopsis saevissima）的超级蚁群与能够生活在其巢穴附近的八种蚂蚁物种以及布氏游蚁（Eciton burchellii）（一种以其他蚂蚁为食的行军蚁）之间的关系。当面对红火蚁（占主导地位）个体时，所有这八种蚂蚁物种的工蚁都表现得顺从，而相反的情况从未出现过。然而，红火蚁对布氏游蚁的工蚁表现出顺从。对于这八种蚂蚁物种，既观察到了DEP，也观察到了NNE，在DEP情况下顺从行为出现的频率较低。为了区分哪些是由于化学信号导致以及哪些可归因于行为，我们从所比较的所有九种蚂蚁物种中提取了表皮化合物，并将它们转移到一些红火蚁工蚁身上，然后让这些工蚁面对未处理过的同种个体。来自三种物种的表皮化合物，特别是布氏游蚁的，引发了红火蚁工蚁更强的攻击性，而来自其他物种的则没有。
