Abstract
We studied 12 species of Strumigenys and confirmed the existence of class-1 apicofemoral and apicotibial glands as exclusive exocrine structures in workers, queens and males in this ant genus. Contrary to the majority of Strumigenys species, these glands are lacking in workers of S. mutica although they are present in queens. This striking discovery may be related with the social parasitic lifestyle of this species; however, it remains entirely speculative in which way the absence of these glands in workers could be beneficial for their social parasitism. The ultrastructure of the glands displays unique epithelial characteristics which include their bowl shape, the occurrence of a swollen nerve wedged between the gland cells and a complex system of irregular microvilli that are separated from the overlaying cuticle by a cytoplasmic layer. Although the function of the glands is still unknown, their cytoplasmic appearance indicates the production of a possibly pheromonal secretion. In addition to the epithelial apicofemoral and apicotibial glands, we also found class-3 dorsodistal femoral and dorsodistal tibial glands as new structures in the exocrine repertoire of ants. As these glands are also present in S. mutica queens but absent in workers, it is a challenge to further study and understand the social parasitism of this species.
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Data availability
All histological sections used in this study are available in the Zoological Institute of KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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Acknowledgements
We thank An Vandoren for making the sections for electron microscopy. We also thank the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan for using the scanning microscope. We acknowledge the valuable comments and recommendations by Júlio Chaul and two anonymous reviewers that helped to improve the manuscript. This project was funded by the China Scholarship Council, grant number 201906300043, and a research grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 109-2621-B-018-001).
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Wang, C., Chung, FY., Lin, CC. et al. Differences in the occurrence of leg glands between the social parasite S. mutica (Brown, 1949) and other Strumigenys ants. Insect. Soc. 70, 233–242 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-023-00912-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-023-00912-9