Zemeitat Dany S, Coquilleau Marianne, Pierce Naomi E, Elgar Mark A
BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 May 7;12(5):241320. doi: 10.1098/rsos.241320. eCollection 2025.
Initiating partnerships in protective symbioses can be asymmetrical if there is a risk of attack from their symbionts. Myrmecophiles may encounter chemically mediated recognition systems that allow the host ants to distinguish nestmates from natural enemies, including non-nestmate conspecifics. The immature stages of the lycaenid butterfly form an obligate symbiosis with workers of that protect them against natural enemies. However, the first instar larvae cannot anticipate this colony-specific chemical recognition system, since they are unlikely to encounter workers from the same colony that tended their mother. We show experimentally that workers of can use chemical signals alone to distinguish between conspecifics and the larvae of ; between nestmate and non-nestmate conspecifics and between larvae tended by nestmate and non-nestmate conspecifics. Nevertheless, we also show experimentally that while workers paid more attention to fourth than second instar larvae, they did not respond more aggressively to larvae that had been tended by non-nestmate versus nestmate workers. These data suggest that workers pay attention to other signals, perhaps via tactile, visual or vibratory sensory modalities, thereby allowing the butterfly myrmecophiles to mitigate the risks associated with the chemically mediated colony-specific recognition systems of their ant hosts.
如果存在来自共生伙伴的攻击风险，那么建立保护性共生关系的伙伴关系可能是不对称的。蚁客可能会遇到化学介导的识别系统，该系统使宿主蚂蚁能够区分巢友和天敌，包括非巢友的同种个体。灰蝶的未成熟阶段与保护它们免受天敌侵害的蚂蚁工蚁形成了专性共生关系。然而，一龄幼虫无法预知这种特定群体的化学识别系统，因为它们不太可能遇到照料其母亲的同一蚁群的工蚁。我们通过实验表明，蚂蚁工蚁仅利用化学信号就能区分同种个体和灰蝶幼虫；区分巢友和非巢友的同种个体，以及区分由巢友和非巢友同种个体照料的幼虫。然而，我们通过实验还表明，虽然工蚁对四龄幼虫的关注多于二龄幼虫，但它们对由非巢友工蚁照料的幼虫的反应并不比对由巢友工蚁照料的幼虫更具攻击性。这些数据表明，工蚁会关注其他信号，可能是通过触觉、视觉或振动感官方式，从而使灰蝶蚁客能够降低与其蚂蚁宿主的化学介导的特定群体识别系统相关的风险。
