Cues of dominance hierarchy, fertility and nestmate recognition in the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus parallel
- PDF / 885,029 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 29 Downloads / 148 Views
CHEMOECOLOGY
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Cues of dominance hierarchy, fertility and nestmate recognition in the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus parallelogrammus (Vespidae: Polistinae: Mischocyttarini) Rafael Carvalho da Silva1 · Olga Coutinho Togni2 · Edilberto Giannotti2 · Fabio Santos do Nascimento1 Received: 18 March 2020 / Accepted: 9 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Chemical communication is pivotal for social insects to ensure proper functioning of their colonies. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are the most well-known class of compounds used to regulate different types of behavioural interaction within a social context. Queens of highly eusocial insects rely on the use of chemical communication to keep their reproductive monopoly, whereas queens of primitively eusocial insects often exert physical control to maintain reproductive dominance. However, in the past years, ample evidence has demonstrated that primitively eusocial insects also use chemical compounds to communicate. Based on this evidence, we aimed to elucidate whether CHCs carry some information regarding female hierarchical position, ovary activation and nestmate recognition in the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus parallelogrammus. Additionally, females were classified by their ovary activation. Finally, the cuticular profiles of females originating from different nests were compared to check whether CHCs convey information about their nest of origin. Our results confirmed that the chemical composition of alpha and subordinate females differed significantly in post-worker emergence nests, but that alpha and beta females surprisingly were not chemically different from each other in either of the colony phases. Furthermore, females with activated ovaries expressed a chemical profile distinct from that of females with non-activated ovaries. Lastly, we showed that CHCs might convey information about nest origin, since females hailing from different nests showed distinct chemical profiles. Based on our results, we conclude that CHCs might play a critical role in the nest-functioning of M. parallelogrammus, since they mirror social status. Keywords Chemical communication · Cuticular hydrocarbons · Social wasps · Ovary activation
Introduction
Communicated by Günther Raspotnig. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-020-00316-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Rafael Carvalho da Silva [email protected] 1
Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo— USP, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil
Instituto de Biociências, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista—Unesp, Rio Claro, SP, Brasil
2
Animals can communicate in several different manners, such as visually, acoustically, tactilely and chemically (Ali and Morgan 1990; Alcock 2016). Chemical communication is thought to be the most ancient communication type in all lifeforms (W
Data Loading...
