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Myrmecophilous aphids produce cuticular hydrocarbons that resemble those of their tending ants

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Population Ecology

Abstract

Aphid-tending ants protect aphids from natural enemies and collect honeydew secreted by the aphids. However, ants also often prey on the aphids they attend. Aphids, therefore, like social parasites of ants, may well have evolved chemical mimicry as an anti-predation strategy. In this study, we aimed to determine whether the aphid Stomaphis yanonis actively produces cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) that resemble those of the tending ant Lasius fuji. In the wild, ants put their CHCs on the aphids that they are tending, so in this study we analyzed “ant-free” aphids. Mature aphids that exuviated in the absence of ant attendance had almost all of the hydrocarbon components that the ants’ CHCs had. Moreover, hydrocarbons artificially applied to the aphids’ body surface were lost by exuviation. Taken together, these findings indicate that mature aphids actively produced ant-like CHCs, and they constitute the first documentation of a chemical resemblance between aphids and ants in a specific aphid–ant association.

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Acknowledgments

We thank R. Yamaoka, T. Akino, N. Fujiwara-Tsujii, and M.K. Hojo for analytical advice and technical support, M. Maruyama for ant identification, and T. Akino, H. Kuzume and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C-22570015), a Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (18657008) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and by Research and Education Funding for Japanese Alps Inter-Universities Cooperative Project, MEXT, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mountain and Environmental Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan

    Shintaro Endo

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan

    Takao Itino

  3. Institute of Mountain Science, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan

    Takao Itino

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  1. Shintaro Endo
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  2. Takao Itino
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Correspondence to Shintaro Endo.

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Endo, S., Itino, T. Myrmecophilous aphids produce cuticular hydrocarbons that resemble those of their tending ants. Popul Ecol 55, 27–34 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-012-0355-0

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