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Complex alarm strategy in the most basal termite species

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Abstract

Studying basal taxa often allows shedding a light on the evolution of advanced representatives. The most basal termite species, Mastotermes darwiniensis, possesses unique morphological and behavioural traits, of which many remain scarcely studied. For these reasons, we conducted a comprehensive study of the alarm communication in this species and compared its components to behavioural modes described in other termites. In M. darwiniensis, the alarm is communicated by substrate-borne vibrations resulting from vertical vibratory movements. Another similar behaviour consists in longitudinal movements, by which the alarm is delivered to other termites in contact with alerted individual. Both these two behavioural modes could be used in synergy to create complex movements. M. darwiniensis also uses chemical alarm signals produced by labial gland secretion, in contrast to Neoisoptera in which this function is fulfilled exclusively by the frontal gland secretion. Moreover, we demonstrated in M. darwiniensis the presence of a positive feedback mechanism thought to occur exclusively in the crown group Termitidae. This positive feedback consists in both oscillatory movements of alerted individuals in response to alarm signals and release of alarm pheromone by excited soldiers. Our results confirm that M. darwiniensis is a remarkable example of mosaic evolution, as it combines many primitive and advanced features, and its alarm communication clearly belongs to the latter category.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to R. Plarre and to the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM, Berlin) for kind providing of M. darwiniensis material. We also want to thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

Financial support was provided by the projects CIGA No. 20154320 and IGA No. B03/15 (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague) and the BQR 2014/2015 from University Paris 13-SPC.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

No specific permits were required for the study. M. darwiniensis is not listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN. We used only material from the breeds of the BAM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague 6–Suchdol, Czech Republic

    Olivier Delattre, Thomas Bourguignon, Blahoslava Vytisková & Jan Šobotník

  2. Institute of Research for Development, Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France

    Olivier Delattre & David Sillam-Dussès

  3. UMR 242, Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris, Bondy, France

    Olivier Delattre & David Sillam-Dussès

  4. Laboratory of Experimental and Applied Ethology - EA 4443, Université Paris 13–Sorbonne Paris Cité, Villetaneuse, France

    David Sillam-Dussès

  5. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technická 2, 166 27, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Vojtěch Jandák, Marek Brothánek & Ondřej Jiříček

  6. Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Karel Rücker & Josef Cvačka

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  1. Olivier Delattre
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Correspondence to Olivier Delattre.

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Communicated by W. O. H. Hughes

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ESM 1

Experimental set-up for vibroacoustic study in the anechoic room. Termite groups were introduced in fixed Petri dishes. Vibrations of termites were recorded with accelerometers and signals were filtered and processed to calculate their energy ratio. Computer-made vibrations were introduced using a shaker connected to an amplifier. x f (t) is filtered acceleration signal, where x f is a function of time (t). (GIF 8 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 586 kb)

ESM 2

Soldier releasing the labial gland secretion as a sign of alert. Soldier is viewed from the top (A) or bottom (B). Asterisks mark the coagulated secretion. Note the fresh lucent secretion visible in (B). (JPEG 2909 kb)

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Delattre, O., Sillam-Dussès, D., Jandák, V. et al. Complex alarm strategy in the most basal termite species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1945–1955 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2007-9

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