Lock-picks: fungal infection facilitates the intrusion of strangers into ant colonies.

ABSTRACT: Studies investigating host-parasite systems rarely deal with multispecies interactions, and mostly explore impacts on hosts as individuals. Much less is known about the effects at colony level, when parasitism involves host organisms that form societies. We surveyed the effect of an ectoparasitic fungus, Rickia wasmannii, on kin-discrimination abilities of its host ant, Myrmica scabrinodis, identifying potential consequences at social level and subsequent changes in colony infiltration success of other organisms. Analyses of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), known to be involved in insects' discrimination processes, revealed variations in chemical profiles correlated with the infection status of the ants, that could not be explained by genetic variation tested by microsatellites. In behaviour

SUBMITTER: Csata E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5389342 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature