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Cuticular Hydrocarbons as Potential Close Range Recognition Cues in Orchid Bees

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Abstract

Male Neotropical orchid bees collect volatile chemicals from their environment and compose species-specific volatile signals, which are subsequently exposed during courtship display. These perfumes are hypothesized to serve as attractants and may play a role in female mate choice. Here, we investigated the potential of cuticular hydrocarbons as additional recognition cues. The cuticular hydrocarbons of males of 35 species belonging to four of the five extant euglossine bee genera consisted of aliphatic hydrocarbons ranging in chain lengths between 21 and 37 C-atoms in distinct compositions, especially between sympatric species of similar coloring and size, for all but one case. Cleptoparasitic Exaerete spp. had divergent profiles, with major compounds predominantly constituted by longer hydrocarbon chains (>30 C-atoms), which may represent an adaptation to the parasitic life history (“chemical insignificance”). Phylogenetic comparative analyses imply that the chemical profiles exhibited by Exaerete spp. are evolutionarily divergent from the rest of the group. Female hydrocarbon profiles were not identical to male profiles in the investigated species, with either partial or complete separation between sexes in multivariate analyses. Sexually dimorphic hydrocarbon profiles are assumed to be the basis for sex recognition in a number of insects, and thus may supplement the acquired perfume phenotypes in chemical information transfer. Overall, cuticular hydrocarbons meet the requirements to function as intraspecific and intersexual close range recognition signals; behavioral experiments are needed to determine their potential involvement in mate recognition.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support by the German Science Foundation to TE (EL 249/6) and short-term fellowships of the German Academic Exchange Service and the Wilhelm und Günter Esser Stiftung to TP are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Lukasz Mitko for sample collection in French Guyana, and the Tropical Station La Gamba, Costa Rica, and J. Javier G. Quezada-Euán at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán for supporting this study. Benjamin Bembé helped with a difficult species distinction. SRR received support from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation and the National Science Foundation (DEB-1457753). Two anonymous reviewers and the editor provided comments that improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany

    Tamara Pokorny & Thomas Eltz

  2. Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Santiago R. Ramírez & Marjorie Gail Weber

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  1. Tamara Pokorny
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  2. Santiago R. Ramírez
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  3. Marjorie Gail Weber
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  4. Thomas Eltz
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Correspondence to Tamara Pokorny.

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ESM 1

Information on samples used for cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile comparisons. Abbreviations of genera: Euglossa = E., Eufriesea = Ef., Eulaema = El. and Exaerete = Ex. (DOCX 19 kb)

ESM 2

ANOSIM results for pairwise comparisons of male cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles of sympatric species with similar visual appearance. Bonferroni-corrected significance levels are given in the first line of the respective groups. The only comparison not reaching the respective Bonferroni-corrected significance level (E. amazonica and E. cordata) within a group of sympatric and visually similar species is indicated in bold font (DOCX 19 kb)

ESM 3

Model comparison results for chemical evolution in Euglossini. For one-regime models (BM1, OU1) a single parameter estimate is given with subscript 1. In two-regime models (BMM, OUM, OUMV) two parameter estimates are given, one set for non-parasitic lineages (subscript 1) and one set for cleptoparasitic lineages (subscript 2). For two-rate analyses, the mean (± SD) of parameter estimates from 100 simulated stochastic histories of parasitism are given. Univariate analyses from OUwie, multivariate analyses from mvMORPH (DOCX 11 kb)

ESM 4

a) Average amounts in % (SD), rounded to the nearest integer, of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) constituting the cuticular profile of females and males of the same (E. championi, E. dilemma, E. erythrochlora, E. townsendi, E. viridissima and Ex. smaragdina) or the possibly corresponding species. Compounds listed with Kovats’ Retention Index (RI). For compounds of chain lengths larger than 32 C-atoms RI could not be calculated due to limits of the set of alkanes used for reference. Cn = Alkane with n C-atoms, x-Cn:1 = Alkene with n C-atoms, double-bond at position x, Cn:2 = Alkadiene with n C-atoms, Cn:3 = Alkatriene with n C-atoms. Double-bond position for compounds with multiple double-bonds unknown, compounds treated as identical if RIs coincide. Abbreviations of genera: Euglossa = E., Eufriesea = Ef., Eulaema = El. and Exaerete = Ex. b) Differences between average male and female CHC profiles of species for which more than 5 samples per sex could be obtained, including only compounds contributing on average >1 % to the CHC profile of one or both sexes (males: black bars, females: grey bars). Positive standard deviations of means are shown as error bars. Asterisks indicate significant differences in single compounds between the sexes (Mann–Whitney U Test) at the respective Bonferroni-corrected level. I) E. viridissima, differences in minor shared compounds. II) E. dilemma, differences in major shared compounds. III) E. erythrochlora, differences in minor shared compounds as well as compounds exclusive to one of the sexes. Cn = Alkane with n C-atoms, x-Cn:1 = Alkene with n C-atoms, double-bond at position x, Cn:2 = Alkadiene with n C-atoms (DOCX 249 kb)

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Pokorny, T., Ramírez, S.R., Weber, M.G. et al. Cuticular Hydrocarbons as Potential Close Range Recognition Cues in Orchid Bees. J Chem Ecol 41, 1080–1094 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-015-0647-x

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