Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (23)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (23)
Year of publication
Document Type
- Journal article (23) (remove)
Language
- English (23) (remove)
Keywords
- cuticular hydrocarbons (5)
- Formicidae (2)
- bees (2)
- chemical communication (2)
- chemical mimicry (2)
- ecology (2)
- formicidae (2)
- global change (2)
- hymenoptera (2)
- plant-insect interactions (2)
- speciation (2)
- Alpine habitats (1)
- Ameisen (1)
- Anoplolepis gracilipes (1)
- Apidae (1)
- Apis dorsata (1)
- BayPass (1)
- Beauveria bassiana (1)
- Bees (1)
- Bembix (1)
- COI (1)
- Chemical composition (1)
- Chrysididae (1)
- Conifers (1)
- Cryptic species (1)
- Dufours gland (1)
- European orchard bee (Osmia cornuta) (1)
- Forests (1)
- Fungal cell-walls (1)
- Halictidae (1)
- Honey bees (1)
- Hymenoptera (1)
- Leaf cutting ants (1)
- Megaponera analis (1)
- Metarhizium anisopliae (1)
- Muscidifurax (1)
- Nasonia (1)
- Nasonia courtship (1)
- Phenols (1)
- Poplars (1)
- Pteromalidae (1)
- QTL analysis (1)
- Stachellose Biene (1)
- Trees (1)
- Trichomalopsis (1)
- Vicia faba (L.) (1)
- Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) (1)
- action potentials (1)
- alkaloids (1)
- alkyloctahydronaphthalene (1)
- altitudinal gradient (1)
- amphibian skin secretions (1)
- animal behaviour (1)
- antimicrobial peptides (1)
- anurans (1)
- appeasement substance (1)
- assortative mating (1)
- bumblebees (1)
- carbon dioxide (CO2) (1)
- chemical ecology (1)
- chemotypes (1)
- chrysididae (1)
- climatic factors (1)
- collections (1)
- conservation (1)
- crematogaster (1)
- cuticular chemistry (1)
- cuticular hydrocarbon (1)
- dendrobates pumilio (1)
- desiccation (1)
- desiccation resistance (1)
- distribution (1)
- division of labor (1)
- drought stress (1)
- dry-mounted samples (1)
- elevational gradient (1)
- entomology (1)
- environmental association analysis (1)
- evolutionary arms race (1)
- female choice (1)
- flowering plants (1)
- flowers (1)
- insect collection (1)
- instinct (1)
- interspecific aggression (1)
- mate recognition (1)
- microbial ecology (1)
- microbiome metabarcoding (1)
- microhylidae (1)
- mountain (1)
- mutualism (1)
- mutualisms (1)
- nesting (1)
- nestmate recognition cues (1)
- neurons (1)
- neutral theory (1)
- niche partitioning (1)
- nutrition (1)
- odorants (1)
- ozone (O3) (1)
- paltothyreus tarsatus (1)
- parabiosis (1)
- parabiotic ants (1)
- parabiotic association (1)
- parallel evolution (1)
- parasitism (1)
- pheromone (1)
- pheromones (1)
- philanthidae (1)
- plant physiology (1)
- plant-herbivore interactions (1)
- pollen metabarcoding (1)
- pollination (1)
- pollinators (1)
- polyergus rufescens (1)
- population divergence (1)
- prezygotic reproductive isolation (1)
- principal component analysis (1)
- proteomics (1)
- rescue behavior (1)
- sex pheromone (1)
- sex pheromones (1)
- sexual dimorphism (1)
- species coexistence mechanism (1)
- trade‐offs (1)
- translocation experiment (1)
- usurpation (1)
- venom (1)
- zoology (1)
Institute
EU-Project number / Contract (GA) number
- 741491 (1)
To trigger innate behavior, sensory neural networks are pre-tuned to extract biologically relevant stimuli. Many male-female or insect-plant interactions depend on this phenomenon. Especially communication among individuals within social groups depends on innate behaviors. One example is the efficient recruitment of nest mates by successful bumblebee foragers. Returning foragers release a recruitment pheromone in the nest while they perform a ‘dance’ behavior to activate unemployed nest mates. A major component of this pheromone is the sesquiterpenoid farnesol. How farnesol is processed and perceived by the olfactory system, has not yet been identified. It is much likely that processing farnesol involves an innate mechanism for the extraction of relevant information to trigger a fast and reliable behavioral response. To test this hypothesis, we used population response analyses of 100 antennal lobe (AL) neurons recorded in alive bumblebee workers under repeated stimulation with four behaviorally different, but chemically related odorants (geraniol, citronellol, citronellal and farnesol). The analysis identified a unique neural representation of the recruitment pheromone component compared to the other odorants that are predominantly emitted by flowers. The farnesol induced population activity in the AL allowed a reliable separation of farnesol from all other chemically related odor stimuli we tested. We conclude that the farnesol induced population activity may reflect a predetermined representation within the AL-neural network allowing efficient and fast extraction of a behaviorally relevant stimulus. Furthermore, the results show that population response analyses of multiple single AL-units may provide a powerful tool to identify distinct representations of behaviorally relevant odors.
The diversity of species is striking, but can be far exceeded by the chemical diversity of compounds collected, produced or used by them. Here, we relate the specificity of plant-consumer interactions to chemical diversity applying a comparative network analysis to both levels. Chemical diversity was explored for interactions between tropical stingless bees and plant resins, which bees collect for nest construction and to deter predators and microbes. Resins also function as an environmental source for terpenes that serve as appeasement allomones and protection against predators when accumulated on the bees’ body surfaces. To unravel the origin of the bees’ complex chemical profiles, we investigated resin collection and the processing of resin-derived terpenes. We therefore analyzed chemical networks of tree resins, foraging networks of resin collecting bees, and their acquired chemical networks. We revealed that 113 terpenes in nests of six bee species and 83 on their body surfaces comprised a subset of the 1,117 compounds found in resins from seven tree species. Sesquiterpenes were the most variable class of terpenes. Albeit widely present in tree resins, they were only found on the body surface of some species, but entirely lacking in others. Moreover, whereas the nest profile of Tetragonula melanocephala contained sesquiterpenes, its surface profile did not. Stingless bees showed a generalized collecting behavior among resin sources, and only a hitherto undescribed species-specific ‘‘filtering’’ of resin-derived terpenes can explain the variation in chemical profiles of nests and body surfaces fromdifferent species. The tight relationship between bees and tree resins of a large variety of species elucidates why the bees’ surfaces contain a much higher chemodiversity than other hymenopterans.
Background: In populations of most social insects, gene flow is maintained through mating between reproductive individuals from different colonies in periodic nuptial flights followed by dispersal of the fertilized foundresses. Some ant species, however, form large polygynous supercolonies, in which mating takes place within the maternal nest (intranidal mating) and fertilized queens disperse within or along the boundary of the supercolony, leading to supercolony growth (colony budding). As a consequence, gene flow is largely confined within supercolonies. Over time, such supercolonies may diverge genetically and, thus, also in recognition cues (cuticular hydrocarbons, CHC’s) by a combination of genetic drift and accumulation of colony-specific, neutral mutations. Methodology/Principal Findings: We tested this hypothesis for six supercolonies of the invasive ant Anoplolepis gracilipes in north-east Borneo. Within supercolonies, workers from different nests tolerated each other, were closely related and showed highly similar CHC profiles. Between supercolonies, aggression ranged from tolerance to mortal encounters and was negatively correlated with relatedness and CHC profile similarity. Supercolonies were genetically and chemically distinct, with mutually aggressive supercolony pairs sharing only 33.1%617.5% (mean 6 SD) of their alleles across six microsatellite loci and 73.8%611.6% of the compounds in their CHC profile. Moreover, the proportion of alleles that differed between supercolony pairs was positively correlated to the proportion of qualitatively different CHC compounds. These qualitatively differing CHC compounds were found across various substance classes including alkanes, alkenes and mono-, di- and trimethyl-branched alkanes. Conclusions: We conclude that positive feedback between genetic, chemical and behavioural traits may further enhance supercolony differentiation through genetic drift and neutral evolution, and may drive colonies towards different evolutionary pathways, possibly including speciation.