Substrate vibration during recruitment in ant social organization

Baroni-Urbani, Cesare; Buser, M. W.; Schilliger, E.

doi:10.1007/bf02224057

Cited by 58 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Hence, the chemical trails of M. capitatus are probably designed to guarantee that recruited foragers reach long distances -Baroni Urbani et al (1988) calculated that, in 5 min at 30°C, M. capitatus workers could patrol an area of 4,91 m 2 -but to persist for only a limited time, allowing the foragers to shift rapidly to new sites when food sources are depleted. This implies that the foraging trails leading to rich feeding sites need to be continuously reinforced while the food is available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical communication during foraging in the harvesting ant Messor capitatus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Grasso¹,

Mori²,

Moli³

1998

Insectes Sociaux

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Some aspects of the chemical communication system employed by the harvesting ant Messor capitatus during foraging were investigated in the laboratory. After locating a conspicuous food item the scouts return home dragging their gaster on the ground. Once inside the nest they run among nestmates and perform an excited motor display. Soon after, groups of workers rush out and move towards the food. Bioassays of different gland extracts showed that nestmates are activated and induced to leave the nest by substances from Dufour's gland. This gland was also found to be the source of the orientation-recruitment trails by which foragers reach newly discovered food sources. The bioassays showed that poison gland extracts are also active in inducing trail following. However, this response was accompanied by typical aggressive reactions by tested ants, suggesting that the poison gland is involved in alarm communication and recruitment towards a source of danger rather than in foraging activities. Some features of the Dufour's gland trail (such as its durability and lack of colony-specificity) are discussed with regard to the ecological requirements of this species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical communication during foraging in the harvesting ant Messor capitatus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Grasso¹,

Mori²,

Moli³

1998

Insectes Sociaux

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“…For instance, the substrate absorbency alters the accessibility of the trail pheromone to foragers [11,44,75] and may orient the collective choice of one path as well as the preferential foraging over a given substrate. Such sensitivity of self-organized structures to abiotic conditions may apply to other information-laden signals such as vibrations produced by stridulating ants [6] or drumming signals produced by workers inside their nests [55] where the amplitude of the signal and its recruitment range depend on the physical properties of the substrate.…”

Section: Sensitivity To Environmental Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-organized structures in a superorganism: do ants “behave” like molecules?

Detrain¹,

Deneubourg²

2006

Physics of Life Reviews

209

144

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“…In some areas of central-southern Italy complex Messor communities are found, in which several colonies of the same or different competing species occupy the same biotopes, and may be located close to each other (Grasso et al, 2002). Messor capitatus is a common harvesting ant in Southern Europe that exploits clumped food sources by a mass recruitment system based on both chemical and acoustic signals (Baroni Urbani et al, 1988;Grasso et al, 1998). In a preliminary laboratory investigation we found that workers of M. capitatus deposited large quantities of brown-yellow material from the hindgut in the vicinity of the nest (Grasso et al, 2000).…”

Section: Chemical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest-area marking with faeces: a chemical signature that allows colony-level recognition in seed harvesting ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

et al. 2005

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Nestmate recognition systems in ants are largely based on chemical signals. The hydrocarbon fraction of the lipid layer which covers the insect cuticle plays a determinant role in this context. Here we report a novel extension of nestmate and alien recognition -nest area marking with faeces containing the same hydrocarbons as the cuticle of workersin a harvesting ant, Messor capitatus. Workers of M. capitatus deposit large quantities of brown-yellow material from the hindgut (termed spots) in the vicinity of the nest. Behavioural investigation showed that such spotting behaviour has a communicative value in the context of nest area identification. Anal fluids deposited in the nest surroundings contain colony-specific cues which the ants use to recognize their own nest areas, and distinguish them from foreign areas even in the absence of nestmate or alien ants. Chemical analyses by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of the contents of anal spots, rectal sacs, and cuticular extracts revealed that all contain the same long-chained linear and branched hydrocarbons in varying proportions. Importantly, multivariate analyses showed that the relative proportions of these compounds on the cuticle and in spots are colony-specific. This provides a mechanism by which spot marking could be used by workers to define and recognize their colony area, and would represent a simple extension of the existing nestmate recognition template based on colonial cuticular signatures. The ecological and sociobiological implications of these findings are discussed.

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Substrate vibration during recruitment in ant social organization

Cited by 58 publications

References 7 publications

Chemical communication during foraging in the harvesting ant Messor capitatus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Chemical communication during foraging in the harvesting ant Messor capitatus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Self-organized structures in a superorganism: do ants “behave” like molecules?

Nest-area marking with faeces: a chemical signature that allows colony-level recognition in seed harvesting ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

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