Morphology of the exocrine glands associated with the maxillolabial complex in the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 (
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Insectes Sociaux
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Morphology of the exocrine glands associated with the maxillolabial complex in the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) W. Xu1 · H. He1 · J. Billen2 Received: 10 July 2020 / Revised: 19 October 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 © International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) 2020
Abstract In this study, we investigated the morphological characteristics of three glands that are associated with the labium and the maxillae in the female castes as well as males of the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 using serial semithin sections and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We propose to name these glands as the postmentum base gland, the stipes base gland and the cardo base gland. The cardo base gland represents what was previously known as the maxillary gland, the two other glands are novel findings. They all belong to class-3 glands and have no reservoir for the storage of secretion. Their morphology is similar among the studied categories (major worker, minor worker, queen and male). The postmentum base gland is made up by 10–15 secretory units that open through the articulation membrane on both sides of the base of the labial postmentum with no significant differences among castes. The stipes base gland is formed by a cluster of secretory units that open at the articulation membrane between cardo and stipes. This gland is much larger in major workers (almost 140 cells) than in the other castes (approx. 50–60 cells). The cardo base gland opens through the membrane that connects the cardo and stipes to the head capsule. The number of cells of this gland is much larger in major workers and queens (approximately 190 and 150, respectively) than in minor workers and males (approximately 45 and 40, respectively). No information is yet available on the function of the glands. Keywords Cardo base gland · Postmentum base gland · Stipes base gland · Histology
Introduction Uptaking food and perceiving the environment are among the most important things for any animal species. In insects, the head is of crucial importance to accomplish these functions, for which it is equipped with several exocrine glands that produce the active secretions. The three major cephalic glands in ants are the mandibular, prepharyngeal and pharyngeal glands (following the revised designation of gland * H. He [email protected] * J. Billen [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Management of Forest Bio‑Disaster, College of Forestry, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
Zoological Institute, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
2
names as recently recommended by Richter et al. 2019, 2020). Of these, the paired mandibular glands are commonly involved in the alarm-defence system (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990), the paired prepharyngeal glands produce digestive enzymes (Ayre 1967), and the glove-shaped pharyngeal gland plays a major role in nestmate recognition
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