Pheromone trail decay rates on different substrates in the Pharaoh's ant, <i>Monomorium pharaonis</i>

Jeanson, Raphaël; Ratnieks, F. L. W.; Deneubourg, Jean‐Louis

doi:10.1046/j.1365-3032.2003.00332.x

Cited by 78 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Apart from these two families, the function of Dufour's gland remains unexplored in other Vespoidea (Tiphiidae, Sapygidae, Mutillidae, Pompilidae, Rhopalosomatidae, Scoliidae, and Sierolomorphidae). In ants (Formicidae), Dufour's gland secretions have often been found to act as a trail pheromone in Formicinae and Ponerinae (Law et al 1965, Hölldobler and Wilson 1970, Williams et al 1981, Bestmann et al 1995, Blatrix et al 2002, Jeanson et al 2003. They have a recruitment effect, serve in territorial marking, or in setting foraging direction (Cammaerts et al 1977, Greene andGordon 2007).…”

Section: B) Aculeatamentioning

confidence: 99%

Function of the Dufour’s gland in solitary and social Hymenoptera

Mitra¹

2013

JHR

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The poison gland and Dufour's gland are the two glands associated with the sting apparatus in female Apocrita (Hymenoptera). While the poison gland usually functions as an integral part of the venom delivery system, the Dufour's gland has been found to differ in its function in various hymenopteran groups. Like all exocrine glands, the function of the Dufour's gland is to secrete chemicals, but the nature and function of the secretions varies in different taxa. Functions of the Dufour's gland secretions range from serving as a component of material used in nest building, larval food, and pheromones involved in communicative functions that are important for both solitary and social species. This review summarizes the different functions reported for the Dufour's gland in hymenopterans, illustrating how the Dufour's gland secretions can be adapted to give rise to various functions in response to different challenges posed by the ways of life followed by different taxa. Aspects of development, structure, chemistry and the evolution of different functions are also touched upon briefly.

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Section: B) Aculeatamentioning

confidence: 99%

Function of the Dufour’s gland in solitary and social Hymenoptera

Mitra¹

2013

JHR

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“…For example, as few as 32% of honey bees that attend a waggle dance find the advertised feeder (Mautz, 1971) and L. niger ants chose the branch at a T-bifurcation marked with trail pheromones only 62 or 70% of the time when it had been marked by one or 20 nestmates, respectively . In the pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis, only 70% of foragers chose the branch at a bifurcation marked by hundreds of workers (Jeanson et al, 2003) and only 9 to 65% of Tetramorium impurum ant foragers succeeded in following a 10-cm-long pheromone trail (Verhaeghe, 1982).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant foraging on complex trails: route learning and the role of trail pheromones inLasius niger

Czaczkes

Grüter

Ellis

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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108

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SUMMARYAnts are central place foragers and use multiple information sources to navigate between the nest and feeding sites. Individual ants rapidly learn a route, and often prioritize memory over pheromone trails when tested on a simple trail with a single bifurcation. However, in nature, ants often forage at locations that are reached via more complex routes with multiple trail bifurcations. Such routes may be more difficult to learn, and thus ants would benefit from additional information. We hypothesized that trail pheromones play a more significant role in ant foraging on complex routes, either by assisting in navigation or route learning or both. We studied Lasius niger workers foraging on a doubly bifurcating trail with four end points. Route learning was slower and errors greater on alternating (e.g. left-right) versus repeating routes (e.g. left-left), with error rates of 32 and 3%, respectively. However, errors on alternating routes decreased by 30% when trail pheromone was present. Trail pheromones also aid route learning, leading to reduced errors in subsequent journeys without pheromone. If an experienced forager makes an error when returning to a food source, it reacts by increasing pheromone deposition on the return journey. In addition, high levels of trail pheromone suppress further pheromone deposition. This negative feedback mechanism may act to conserve pheromone or to regulate recruitment. Taken together, these results demonstrate further complexity and sophistication in the foraging system of ant colonies, especially in the role of trail pheromones and their relationship with learning and the use of private information (memory) in a complex environment.

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“…Several studies have highlighted the effect of environment on such self-organized behaviours (Deneubourg et al 1989;Franks et al 1991;Bonabeau et al 1998;Nicolis & Deneubourg 1999;Detrain & Deneubourg 2002;Jeanson et al 2003;Challet et al 2005;Colasurdo et al 2007;Jost et al 2007;Dussutour et al 2008). The surrounding characteristics modify the collective pattern by triggering changes in individual responses or even by simply mediating the interaction between workers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavated substrate modulates growth instability during nest building in ants

2010

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In social insects, the nests of the same species can show a large difference in size and shape. Despite these large variations, the nests share the same substructures, some appearing during nest growth. In ants, the interplay between nest size and digging activity leads to two successive morphological transitions from circular to branched shapes (budding along the perimeter of the circular cavity and tunnelling of the galleries). Like several other self-organized collective behaviours, this phenomenon, as well as the entire nest-digging process, is thought to be modulated by environmental properties. The present study investigates the effect of excavated substrate on the nest morphogenesis and the morphological transitions by using two materials with different cohesions. Here, we show that the two morphological transitions occur more frequently with a cohesive substrate than with a granular one: 96 per cent of cohesive experiments showed both transitions, whereas only 50 per cent did in granular experiments. We found that transitions and excavation cessation follow area -response thresholds: the shape transitions take place and the digging activity stops when the dug area reaches the corresponding threshold values. The shape transition thresholds are lower with the cohesive substrate and that of stopping digging is independent of nest shape and material. According to simulations, the experimental frequencies of transitions found their origin in the competition between transitions and activity cessation and in the difference between the transition threshold values of each substrate. Our results demonstrate how the substrate properties modulate the collective response and lead to various patterns. Considering the non-specific mechanisms at work, such effects of substrate coarseness have their counterparts in various collective behaviours, generating alternative patterns to colonize and exploit the environment.

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Pheromone trail decay rates on different substrates in the Pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis

Cited by 78 publications

References 29 publications

Function of the Dufour’s gland in solitary and social Hymenoptera

Function of the Dufour’s gland in solitary and social Hymenoptera

Ant foraging on complex trails: route learning and the role of trail pheromones inLasius niger

Excavated substrate modulates growth instability during nest building in ants

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