Alarm Pheromone Composition and Behavioral Activity in Fungus-Growing Ants.

ABSTRACT: Chemical communication is a dominant method of communication throughout the animal kingdom and can be especially important in group-living animals in which communicating threats, either from predation or other dangers, can have large impacts on group survival. Social insects, in particular, have evolved a number of pheromonal compounds specifically to signal alarm. There is predicted to be little selection for interspecific variation in alarm cues because individuals may benefit from recognizing interspecific as well as conspecific cues and, consequently, alarm cues are not normally thought to be used for species or nestmate recognition. Here, we examine the composition of the alarm pheromones of seven species of fungus-growing ants (Attini), including both basal and derived species and ex

SUBMITTER: Norman VC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5371636 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature