The Inquiline Ant Myrmica karavajevi Uses Both Chemical and Vibroacoustic Deception Mechanisms to Integrate into Its Host Colonies

Abstract

Social parasitism represents a particular type of agonistic interaction in which a parasite exploits an entire society instead of a single organism. One fascinating form of social parasitism in ants is the “inquilinism”, in which a typically worker-less parasitic queen coexists with the resident queen in the host colony and produces sexual offspring. To bypass the recognition system of host colonies, inquilines have evolved a repertoire of deceiving strategies. We tested the level of integration of the inquiline Myrmica karavajevi within the host colonies of M. scabrinodis and we investigated the mechanisms of chemical and vibroacoustic deception used by the parasite. M. karavajevi is integrated into the ant colony to such an extent that, in rescue experiments, the parasite pupae were saved prior to the host’s brood. M. karavajevi gynes perfectly imitated the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of M. scabrinodis queens and the parasite vibroacoustic signals resembled those emitted by the host queens eliciting the same levels of attention in the host workers during playback experiments. Our results suggest that M. karavajevi has evolved ultimate deception strategies to reach the highest social status in the colony hierarchy, encouraging the use of a combined molecular and behavioural approach when studying host–parasite interactions.

Multiple phenotypic traits as triggers of host attacks towards ant symbionts: body size, morphological gestalt, and chemical mimicry accuracy

“…We expanded the inventory of commonly studied guest traits by including two easily recordable traits: the body size and the morphological gestalt. Integrating these traits suggested that focusing on a single or a few traits likely falls short in explaining host exploitation mechanisms, supporting previous findings in other social insect-symbiont systems (e.g., [ 21 , 23 , 139 , 140 ]). We thus conclude that future work should best integrate multiple phenotypic guest traits synergistically in a comparative framework to point towards possible proximate mechanisms underlying social insect exploitation, which can then be studied in more detail with controlled manipulative experiments.…”

Chemotaxonomy ofTapinomaand some Dolichoderinae ants from Europe and North Africa

“…The abundance of alkenes in workers may also be related to parasitism. The inquiline ant Myrmica karavajevi , parasite of Myrmica scabrinodis , used two adaptations to be admitted in the host colony, it smells the host queen odor but also produces sounds similar to the host ants (Casacci et al 2021). The total quantities of alkenes are more important in the M. karavajevi parasite queens (16.68%) compared to M. scabrinodis workers (8.58%) but they are very far from the Bothriomyrmex quantities.…”

The Pattern of Social Parasitism in Maculinea teleius Butterfly Is Driven by the Size and Spatial Distribution of the Host Ant Nests

“…Myrmica Latreille, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) ants are hosts to many parasitic ant species, primarily members of the same genus [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ] but are also known for hosting immature instars of many other insects, such as Maculinea butterflies [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The survival of Maculinea Van Eecke, 1915 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) larvae depends on the presence of their host ant nests but also on a specific food plant [ 17 , 18 ].…”