Mayade S, Cammaerts M C, Suzzoni J P
Laboratoire de Biologie et Ethologie des Insectes, Université Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Laboratoire de Biologie Animale et Cellulaire, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Behav Processes. 1993 Oct;30(2):131-42. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(93)90003-A.
According to the marking activity and to the behaviour of ants, two areas can be distinguished outside the nests of Cataglyphis cursor. One is the vicinity of the nests, near the nest entrance. Here, the ground is covered with many hindgut spots, and resident ants aggress alien ones in 50% of their encountering. The vicinity of the nests can thus be considered as being territorially marked. Elsewhere the foraging area is covered with only few hindgut spots, and resident ants are not aggressive towards alien ones. The marking of this area is species- rather than colony-specific and can be considered to be a home-range marking. It was set up progressively in about two hours in our laboratory conditions, by the first foragers crossing the area, and was regularly maintained thereafter. Experiments revealed that the hindgut may play a part in C. cursor territorial marking, and that the outside workers' Dufour gland may allow the specific home-range marking. The poison gland probably interferes with the alarm-defence system of the species. The organ content of the young workers is inefficient, or at least less efficient, than that of older nestmates. This result points out the existence of some age-related physiological changes in the workers.
根据标记活动和蚂蚁的行为，可以区分出猫眼石蚁巢穴外的两个区域。一个是巢穴附近，靠近巢穴入口。这里，地面上布满了许多后肠斑点，常驻蚂蚁在50%的相遇中会攻击外来蚂蚁。因此，巢穴附近可被视为有领地标记。在其他地方，觅食区域只覆盖有少量后肠斑点，常驻蚂蚁对外来蚂蚁不具攻击性。该区域的标记是物种特异性而非群体特异性的，可被视为一种活动范围标记。在我们的实验室条件下，它大约在两小时内由第一批穿过该区域的觅食者逐渐建立起来，此后定期维持。实验表明，后肠可能在猫眼石蚁的领地标记中起作用，而外出工蚁的杜氏腺可能促成了特定的活动范围标记。毒腺可能会干扰该物种的警报防御系统。年轻工蚁的器官含量比年长的同巢蚂蚁低效，或者至少效率较低。这一结果指出了工蚁中存在一些与年龄相关的生理变化。
