Chalissery Jaime M, Renyard Asim, Gries Regine, Hoefele Danielle, Alamsetti Santosh Kumar, Gries Gerhard
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada.
Insects. 2019 Nov 1;10(11):383. doi: 10.3390/insects10110383.
Ants deposit trail pheromones that guide nestmates to food sources. We tested the hypotheses that ant community members (Western carpenter ants, ; black garden ants, ; European fire ants, ) (1) sense, and follow, each other's trail pheromones, and (2) fail to recognize trail pheromones of allopatric ants (pavement ants, ; desert harvester ants, ; Argentine ants, ). In gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection analyses of a six-species synthetic trail pheromone blend (6-TPB), , , and sensed the trail pheromones of all community members and unexpectedly that of . Except for , all species did not recognize the trail pheromones of and . In bioassays, workers followed the 6-TPB trail for longer distances than their own trail pheromone, indicating an additive effect of con- and hetero-specific pheromones on trail-following. Moreover, workers followed the 6-TPB and their own trail pheromones for similar distances, indicating no adverse effects of heterospecific pheromones on trail-following. Our data show that ant community members eavesdrop on each other's trail pheromones, and that multiple pheromones can be combined in a lure that guides multiple species of pest ants to lethal food baits.
蚂蚁会释放踪迹信息素，引导蚁群成员找到食物来源。我们检验了以下假设：蚂蚁群落成员（西方木工蚁、黑花园蚁、欧洲火蚁）（1）能够感知并跟随彼此的踪迹信息素，（2）无法识别异域蚂蚁（铺道蚁、沙漠收获蚁、阿根廷蚁）的踪迹信息素。在对六种合成踪迹信息素混合物（6-TPB）进行的气相色谱 - 触角电图检测分析中，西方木工蚁、黑花园蚁和欧洲火蚁能够感知所有群落成员的踪迹信息素，出人意料的是还能感知铺道蚁的踪迹信息素。除了欧洲火蚁外，所有物种都无法识别铺道蚁和沙漠收获蚁的踪迹信息素。在生物测定中，西方木工蚁工蚁跟随6-TPB踪迹的距离比跟随自身踪迹信息素的距离更长，这表明同种和异种信息素对踪迹跟随有累加效应。此外，欧洲火蚁工蚁跟随6-TPB和自身踪迹信息素的距离相似，这表明异种信息素对踪迹跟随没有不利影响。我们的数据表明，蚂蚁群落成员会窃听彼此的踪迹信息素，并且多种信息素可以组合在一个诱捕剂中，引导多种害虫蚂蚁前往致命的食物诱饵。
