Ant Pupae Employ Acoustics to Communicate Social Status in Their Colony’s Hierarchy

Abstract

The possession of an efficient communication system and an ability to distinguish between young stages are essential attributes that enable eusocial insects to live in complex integrated societies. Although ants communicate primarily via chemicals, it is increasingly clear that acoustical signals also convey important information, including status, between adults in many species. However, all immature stages were believed to be mute. We confirm that larvae and recently formed pupae of Myrmica ants are mute, yet once they are sclerotized, the pupae possess a fully functioning stridulatory organ. The sounds generated by worker pupae were similar to those of workers but were emitted as single pulses rather than in the long sequences characteristic of adults; both induced the same range and intensity of benevolent behaviors when played back to unstressed workers. Both white and sclerotized pupae have a higher social status than larvae within Myrmica colonies, but the latter's status fell significantly after they were made mute. Our results suggest that acoustical signals supplant semiochemicals as a means of identification in sclerotized pupae, perhaps because their hardened integuments block the secretion of brood pheromones or because their developing adult secretions initially differ from overall colony odors.

Variation in Butterfly Larval Acoustics as a Strategy to Infiltrate and Exploit Host Ant Colony Resources

“…Ants have evolved a complex set of signals which allow colony members to distinguish between nest-mates and intruders. Signals are mainly based on the exchange of chemical cues [1], [8]–[9] but also involve acoustic emissions [10]–[13]. Even though sound production is not usually the dominant strategy, acoustic communication plays a wide range of roles in the ants' social behaviour, from reciprocal attraction to inter-caste interactions and it has also been suggested that sounds are involved in the modulation of other signals (such as visual and chemical – e.g.…”

Trail following Learning by Young Myrmica rubra Workers (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

“…The individuals perform many complex tasks such as caring of the brood and queens, foraging and navigating on their area, collecting food, recruiting congeners, defending the colony, relocating the nest, and building a nest [1]. Such a social life is regulated by chemical, visual, tactile, and acoustic signals such as an alarm pheromone [2], area marking substances [3][4][5], a trail pheromone [6], individual cuticular odors [7], learned visual elements [8][9][10], antennal contacts [11], and sounds [12].…”

Maternal and nourishment factors interact to influence offspring developmental trajectories in social wasps

“…For example, in queenright Harpegnathos saltator ant colonies, workers repeatedly bite larvae developing into queens, which results in those larvae changing their developmental trajectories and emerging as workers [45]. Termite soldiers use substrate-borne vibrations to communicate alarm or threat to conspecifics [46], and Myrmica ant pupae stridulate to communicate to workers in the nest their late developmental stage and social status in the colony [47]. Rapid antennation is also observed among adults engaged in non-lethal intra-or interspecific aggressive contests (e.g.…”