Chen Jian, Ni Xinzhi, Grodowitz Michael J
Biological Control of Pests Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, 59 Lee Road, Stoneville, MS 38776, USA.
Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Tifton, GA 31793, USA.
Insects. 2024 Nov 30;15(12):954. doi: 10.3390/insects15120954.
The house cricket, (Linnaeus), is often used as a food source for the maintenance of imported fire ants under laboratory rearing. It was found that both red imported fire ants, Buren, and black imported fire ants, Forel, consumed most of the soft tissues of female crickets, but avoided their eggs by disposing of them on refuse piles. Bioassays using freshly collected cricket eggs showed that ants first retrieved eggs into their nests and then discarded them onto the refuse piles. The major chemicals on the surface of cricket eggs were found to be fatty acids, including lauric, myristic, palmitoleic, palmitic, linoleic, oleic, and stearic acid. Fatty acids are well-known death cues of insects and elicitors of widespread necrophoric behavior in ants. It was shown that both the cricket egg extract and the reconstructed fatty acid mixture elicited the necrophoric behavior of ; however, they never elicited retrieving behavior. Unknown chemicals on cricket eggs, other than fatty acids, might be responsible for the retrieving behavior. Interestingly, cricket eggs had a very similar fatty acid profile to that of dead ants collected from refuse piles. Possible causes for such a strong match in fatty acid profiles between dead ants and cricket eggs are discussed.
家蟋蟀（Linnaeus）常被用作实验室饲养条件下维持红火蚁生存的食物来源。研究发现，红火蚁（Buren）和黑火蚁（Forel）都会吃掉雌蟋蟀的大部分软组织，但会将蟋蟀卵丢弃在垃圾堆上，从而避开它们。使用刚收集的蟋蟀卵进行的生物测定表明，蚂蚁首先会将卵带回巢穴，然后再将它们丢弃到垃圾堆上。研究发现，蟋蟀卵表面的主要化学物质是脂肪酸，包括月桂酸、肉豆蔻酸、棕榈油酸、棕榈酸、亚油酸、油酸和硬脂酸。脂肪酸是昆虫众所周知的死亡信号，也是引发蚂蚁广泛的尸体搬运行为的诱因。研究表明，蟋蟀卵提取物和重构的脂肪酸混合物都会引发黑火蚁的尸体搬运行为；然而，它们从未引发蚂蚁的取回行为。除脂肪酸外，蟋蟀卵上的未知化学物质可能是导致取回行为的原因。有趣的是，蟋蟀卵的脂肪酸谱与从垃圾堆收集的死蚂蚁的脂肪酸谱非常相似。文中讨论了死蚂蚁和蟋蟀卵脂肪酸谱如此高度匹配的可能原因。
