ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Location-specific cuticular hydrocarbon signals in a social insect.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cuticular Hydrocarbon Differentiation Between Body Parts of Schistocerca gregaria Locusts.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Divergence in cuticular wax profiles generates partial behavioural isolation between leaf beetle populations with different dispersal traits.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Seasonal and Habitat-related Variations in the Cuticular Chemical Profile of Atta sexdens (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Foraging Workers.Neotropical entomology · 2025Article
- Ant responses in a lycaenid-ant symbiosis are not facilitated by cuticular compounds alone.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Integrating computer vision and molecular neurobiology to bridge the gap between behavior and the brain.Current opinion in insect science · 2024Review
- Behavioural consequences of intraspecific variability in a mate recognition signal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) cuticular hydrocarbons contain information about body size and sex.PloS one · 2024Article
- Chemosensory input from mouthparts in response to sexually dimorphic cuticular wax mediates male sexual discrimination in Galerucella grisescens (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Isolation disrupts social interactions and destabilizes brain development in bumblebees.Current biology : CB · 2022Article
- Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles differ between ant body parts: implications for communication and our understanding of CHC diffusion.Current zoology · 2021Article
- Uncovering variation in social insect communication.Current zoology · 2021Article
- Territoriality in ants revisited: iconic collective displays reflect resource, not territorial defense in meat ants Iridomyrmex purpureus.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2020Article
- Odor coding of nestmate recognition in the eusocial antThe Journal of experimental biology · 2020Article
- Natural and sexual selection on cuticular hydrocarbons: a quantitative genetic analysis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Insect Antennal Morphology: The Evolution of Diverse Solutions to Odorant Perception.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2018Review
- Putative Neural Network Within an Olfactory Sensory Unit for Nestmate and Non-nestmate Discrimination in the Japanese Carpenter Ant: The Ultra-structures and Mathematical Simulation.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social insects use cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) to convey different social signals, including colony or nest identity. Despite extensive investigations, the exact source and identity of CHCs that act as nest-specific identification signals remain largely unknown. Perhaps this is because studies that identify CHC signals typically use organic solvents to extract a single sample from the entire animal, thereby analysing a cocktail of chemicals that may serve several signal functions. We took a novel approach by first identifying CHC profiles from different body parts of ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus), then used behavioural bioassays to reveal the location of specific social signals. The CHC profiles of both workers and alates varied between different body parts, and workers paid more attention to the antennae of non-nest-mate and the legs of nest-mate workers. Workers responded less aggressively to non-nest-mate workers if the CHCs on the antennae of their opponents were removed with a solvent. These data indicate that CHCs located on the antennae reveal nest-mate identity and, remarkably, that antennae both convey and receive social signals. Our approach and findings could be valuably applied to chemical signalling in other behavioural contexts, and provide insights that were otherwise obscured by including chemicals that either have no signal function or may be used in other contexts.
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