All individuals in social insect colonies benefit from being informed about the presence and fertility state of reproducers. This allows the established reproductive individuals to maintain their reproductive monopoly without the need for physical control, and the non-reproductive individuals to make appropriate reproductive choices. Here, we studied whether fertility signaling is responsible for the partitioning of reproduction in the ant Neoponera apicalis. This species forms small colonies from one single-mated queen, with workers establishing reproductive hierarchies when hopelessly queenless. Previous studies identified putative fertility signals, particularly the hydrocarbon 13-methylpentacosane (13-MeC25), and have shown that precise status discrimination based on these signals could be involved in the regulation of reproductive activities. Here, we extend these findings and reveal that all individuals, be they queens or workers, differ in their cuticular hydrocarbon profile according to fertility state. Proportions of 13-MeC25 were a strong predictor of an individual's ovarian activity, and could, thus, advertise the established reproducer(s) in both queenright and queenless conditions. Furthermore, this compound might play a key role in the establishment of the reproductive hierarchy, since workers with low fertility at the onset of hierarchy formation already have relatively high amounts of 13-MeC25. Dyadic encounters showed that individuals with experimentally increased amounts of 13-MeC25 triggered less agonistic interactions from top rankers, in accord with them "advertising" higher status. Thus, these bioassays supported the use of 13-MeC25 by competing ants. This simple recognition system potentially allows permanent regulation of partitioning of reproduction in this species.
Termite mounds are often cited as an example of efficient thermoregulated structures. Nest thermal stability can be critical for insects that are particularly sensitive to heat and desiccation. Few studies have measured internal temperature of termite nests with respect to environmental parameters, especially in Neotropical species. In this study, we analyzed the thermal profiles of different parts of Procornitermes araujoi nests, a neotropical mound-building termite of the Brazilian cerrado. To read into our dataset we first used rasterization, a method that allows a quick-look assessment of time-series. Our results show that nest architecture efficiently buffers against environmental temperature fluctuations while at the same time maintaining a relatively high internal temperature in the core. This rather stable internal climate follows nevertheless the external temperature long-term averages. Using a novel numerical scheme, we further show that the heat transfer dynamics are well described by the classical heat equation, with an additional heat source whose origin is discussed.
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