Bos Nick, Kankaanpää-Kukkonen Viljami, Freitak Dalial, Stucki Dimitri, Sundström Liselotte
Organismal and evolutionary biology, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland.
Tvärminne Zoological Station, 10900 Hanko, Finland.
Insects. 2019 Aug 26;10(9):271. doi: 10.3390/insects10090271.
Eusocial insects, such as ants, have access to complex disease defenses both at the individual, and at the colony level. However, different species may be exposed to different diseases, and/or deploy different methods of coping with disease. Here, we studied and compared survival after fungal exposure in 12 species of ants, all of which inhabit similar habitats. We exposed the ants to two entomopathogenic fungi ( and ), and measured how exposure to these fungi influenced survival. We furthermore recorded hygienic behaviors, such as autogrooming, allogrooming and trophallaxis, during the days after exposure. We found strong differences in autogrooming behavior between the species, but none of the study species performed extensive allogrooming or trophallaxis under the experimental conditions. Furthermore, we discuss the possible importance of the metapleural gland, and how the secondary loss of this gland in the genus could favor a stronger behavioral response against pathogen threats.
群居昆虫，如蚂蚁，在个体和群体层面都拥有复杂的疾病防御机制。然而，不同物种可能会接触到不同的疾病，和/或采用不同的应对疾病的方法。在此，我们研究并比较了12种蚂蚁在接触真菌后的存活率，所有这些蚂蚁都栖息在相似的栖息地。我们让蚂蚁接触两种昆虫病原真菌（和），并测量接触这些真菌如何影响存活率。此外，我们在接触后的几天里记录了卫生行为，如自我梳理、相互梳理和交哺。我们发现不同物种之间在自我梳理行为上存在显著差异，但在实验条件下，没有一个研究物种进行广泛的相互梳理或交哺。此外，我们讨论了后胸侧板腺的可能重要性，以及该属中该腺体的二次丧失如何可能有利于对病原体威胁产生更强的行为反应。
