ArticleBiology letters2015
A social insect fertility signal is dependent on chemical context.
Article in Biology letters, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- The alkenes Z9-CNature communications · 2025Article
- Bumble bee queen pheromones are context-dependent.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Queen and king recognition in the subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes: Evidence for royal recognition pheromones.PloS one · 2019Article
- Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Identification of a queen and king recognition pheromone in the subterranean termiteProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Solitary bees reduce investment in communication compared with their social relatives.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Hormonal pleiotropy helps maintain queen signal honesty in a highly eusocial wasp.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Article
- Beyond Cuticular Hydrocarbons: Chemically Mediated Mate Recognition in the Subsocial Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- Conservation of Queen Pheromones Across Two Species of Vespine Wasps.Journal of chemical ecology · 2016Article
- The origin and evolution of queen and fertility signals in Corbiculate bees.BMC evolutionary biology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Identifying group members and individuals' status within a group are fundamental tasks in animal societies. For ants, this information is coded in the cuticular hydrocarbon profile. We manipulated profiles of the ant Odontomachus brunneus to examine whether the releaser and primer effects of fertility signals are dependent on chemical context. Fertility status is signalled through increased abundance of (Z)-9-nonacosene (Z9 : C29). Across the ant's distribution, populations have distinct hydrocarbon profiles but the fertility signal is conserved. Foreign queens and fertility-signal-treated workers from the same population, sharing a similar chemical background, elicited releaser effects from workers, whereas queens and fertility-signal-treated workers from different populations did not. Z9 : C29 presented without chemical background did not elicit releaser effects. A primer-effect experiment found that Z9 : C29, presented without a chemical background, did not inhibit worker reproduction. Our results demonstrate that a familiar chemical background is necessary for appropriate responses to fertility signals.
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