Trail pheromones of ants

Abstract

. The study of trail laying, recruitment of workers and trail-following by worker ants comprises a co-operative study of entomologists and chemists that has resulted in the identification of the chemical nature of such pheromones in many species of five subfamilies of ants. These pheromones may comprise a single compound or, in one exceptional case, a blend of as many as 14 compounds, they may come from a single gland, or in some cases, a combination of two glands. They may be peculiar to a single species or may be shared by a number of species. They exist in the glandular secretion in nanogram to picogram quantities and are detected by workers in minute amounts on a trail. The present state of knowledge of these pheromones and their chemical structures is reviewed. Suitable bioassays and odour perception are discussed and the stereobiology of a few examples is considered.

Thigmotaxis Mediates Trail Odour Disruption

“…2). The ( Z )-9-hexadecenal concentration range that we found to elicit trail following is in concordance with that of other known ant trail pheromone systems 37 . Ants trailed along gaster extract dilutions across four orders of magnitude between 0.09 and 90 pg/cm, or 0.00075 to 0.75 gaster equivalents.…”

orco Mutagenesis Causes Loss of Antennal Lobe Glomeruli and Impaired Social Behavior in Ants

“…Pheromone trails are a major feature of chemical communication in many ants, and are important for coordinating collective behaviors (David Morgan, 2009; Zube et al, 2008). In many doryline ants, including O. biroi , disturbance of colonies leads to robust trail formation, likely for the purpose of nest relocation (Gotwald, 1995, p. 99; Hölldobler, 1982; Schneirla, 1971, p. 94).…”

“…Ants live in complex societies and display sophisticated social behavior, including reproductive division of labor between queens and workers, behavioral division of labor between nurses and foragers, the formation of adaptive foraging networks, nestmate vs. non-nestmate discrimination, and collective nest construction (David Morgan, 2009; Grüter and Keller, 2016; Leonhardt et al, 2016; Richard and Hunt, 2013). All of these behaviors are largely mediated via chemical communication using a wide range of pheromones.…”

A locally-blazed ant trail achieves efficient collective navigation despite limited information

“…Chemical analysis of the marked surfaces ascertains that the identified events are accompanied by the deposition of undecane, a prominent P. longicornis trail pheromone (Morgan et al, 2005; Witte et al, 2007a; Witte et al, 2007b) (Figure 1D–E, Materials and methods). The fast evaporation of this short hydrocarbon dictates an extremely short lifetime (Czaczkes and Ratnieks, 2013; Fujiwara-Tsujii et al, 2006) in comparison to most other pheromones found in the trails of other ant species (Morgan, 2009; Jackson et al, 2006; Beugnon and Déjean, 1992) and even to trails constructed by P. longicornis outside the context of cooperative transport (Witte et al, 2007a). In fact, the high volatility of undecane makes it a prevalent ant alarm pheromone (Fujiwara-Tsujii et al, 2006; Blum, 1969; Lenz et al, 2013; Regnier and Wilson, 1968).…”