Cammaerts M C, Cammaerts R
Laboratoire de Biologie Animale et Cellulaire, Faculté des Sciences, C.P. 160 / 11, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Behav Processes. 1996 Aug;37(1):21-30. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(95)00064-x.
The Mediterranean dimorphic ant Pheidole pallidula has a rapid, short-lasting and species-specific homerange area marking. It is performed by the minor workers, which are stimulated to mark by the major workers. The first few minors reaching a new area move on it very slowly and begin to mark it by depositing spots of their Dufour gland content. This secretion attracts other minors and a few majors, which come onto the area, then return to the nest, then come back to the area, inviting the minors to mark the area through tactile stimulations and emission of their own Dufour gland content. Contrary to the minors' Dufour gland content, the majors' one is non-attractive and does not allow marking. After about ten minutes, the ants' movements on the new area become the same as that occurring on their usual foraging area; if not walked on any further, the area loses its marking within about twenty minutes. These home-range marking characteristics may enable the ant P. pallidula to rapidly colonize new areas and keep them marked for only as long as they are useful to the society.
地中海二态性蚂蚁苍白头蚁具有快速、短暂且物种特异性的巢域标记行为。这一行为由工蚁执行，工蚁受到兵蚁的刺激而进行标记。最初到达新区域的几只工蚁在上面缓慢移动，并通过分泌杜氏腺分泌物来开始标记。这种分泌物会吸引其他工蚁和几只兵蚁，它们来到该区域后，再返回巢穴，然后又回到该区域，通过触觉刺激和分泌自身的杜氏腺分泌物来促使工蚁标记该区域。与工蚁的杜氏腺分泌物不同，兵蚁的分泌物没有吸引力，无法用于标记。大约十分钟后，蚂蚁在新区域的活动变得与在它们通常觅食区域的活动相同；如果不再有蚂蚁在上面行走，该区域在大约二十分钟内就会失去标记。这些巢域标记特征可能使苍白头蚁能够迅速在新区域定居，并仅在对群体有用时才保持对这些区域的标记。
