Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-DC), Florence, Italy.
Insect Sci. 2021 Apr;28(2):548-554. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12778. Epub 2020 Jul 21.
The social parasitic beetle Paussus favieri (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Paussini) performs different types of stridulations, which selectively mimic those emitted by different ant castes of its host Pheidole pallidula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae). However, the significance of this acoustical mimicry for the success of the parasitic strategy and the behaviors elicited in the host ants by stridulations was unknown. We reared Paussus favieri in Pheidole pallidula colonies and filmed their interacting behaviors. We analyzed in slow motion the behavior of ants near a stridulating beetle. We analyzed separately trains of pulse (Pa + Pb, produced by repeated rubbings) and single pulse (Pc, produced by a single rubbing) of stridulations, clearly recognizable from the shaking up and down of the beetle hind legs, and associated them with different ant responses. The full repertoire of sounds produced by P. favieri elicited benevolent responses both in workers and soldiers. We found that different signals elicit different (sometimes multiple) behaviors in ants, with different frequency in the two ant castes. However, Pc (alone or in conjunction with other types of pulses) appears to be the type of acoustic signal mostly responsible for all recorded behaviors. These results indicate that the acoustic channel plays a pivotal role in the host-parasite interaction. Finding that a parasite uses the acoustical channel so intensively, and in such a complicated way to trigger ant behaviors, indicates that acoustic signals may be more important in ant societies than commonly recognized.
拟步甲科的社会寄生性甲虫 Paussus favieri 会发出不同类型的摩擦声，这些声音能够选择性地模仿宿主细颚猛蚁的不同蚁型所发出的声音（膜翅目，蚁科，切叶蚁亚科）。然而，这种声学拟态对于寄生策略的成功以及摩擦声在宿主蚂蚁中引发的行为的意义尚不清楚。我们在细颚猛蚁的蚁群中饲养 Paussus favieri，并拍摄它们的互动行为。我们在慢动作中分析了靠近摩擦发声甲虫的蚂蚁的行为。我们分别分析了摩擦声产生的脉冲串（Pa + Pb，由重复摩擦产生）和单脉冲（Pc，由单次摩擦产生），这些脉冲可以通过甲虫后腿的上下抖动清晰地识别出来，并将它们与蚂蚁的不同反应联系起来。P. favieri 发出的所有声音都引起了工蚁和兵蚁的善意反应。我们发现，不同的信号会在蚂蚁中引起不同的（有时是多种）行为，而在两种蚂蚁类型中的频率也不同。然而，Pc（单独或与其他类型的脉冲结合）似乎是引起所有记录行为的主要声学信号类型。这些结果表明，声学通道在宿主-寄生虫相互作用中起着关键作用。发现寄生虫如此密集地利用声学通道并以如此复杂的方式触发蚂蚁行为，表明声学信号在蚂蚁社会中可能比通常认为的更为重要。
