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Differential Sharing of Chemical Cues by Social Parasites Versus Social Mutualists in a Three-Species Symbiosis

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Abstract

Chemical recognition systems are crucial for maintaining the unity of social insect colonies. It has been proposed that colonies form a common chemical signature, called the gestalt odor, which is used to distinguish colony members and non-members. This chemical integration is achieved actively through social interactions such as trophallaxis and allogrooming, or passively such as through exposure to common nest material. When colonies are infiltrated by social parasites, the intruders often use some form of chemical mimicry. However, it is not always clear how this chemical mimicry is accomplished. Here, we used a three-species nesting symbiosis to test the differences in chemical integration of mutualistic (parabiotic) and parasitic ant species. We found that the parasite (Solenopsis picea) obtains chemical cues from both of the two parabiotic host ant species. However, the two parabiotic species (Crematogaster levior and Camponotus femoratus) maintain species-specific cues, and do not acquire compounds from the other species. Our findings suggest that there is a fundamental difference in how social mutualists and social parasites use chemicals to integrate themselves into colonies.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Celeste Sandoval and Alain Dejean for help in the field; Jeannot and Odette Morvan at Camp Patawa for lodgings in French Guiana; Stephanie Kung, Judy Chung, Larissa Walder, and Camila Torres for help with lab work. Funding for this research was provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Division Alan E. Leviton Student Research Award, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Fellowship for Graduate Student Travel, the Margaret C. Walker Fund for Teaching and Research in Systematic Entomology, the Johannes Joos Fund, and a Post-Graduate Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to VJE. This work was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project CA-B-INS-0087-H. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Virginia J. Emery & Neil D. Tsutsui

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  1. Virginia J. Emery
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  2. Neil D. Tsutsui
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Correspondence to Neil D. Tsutsui.

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Emery, V.J., Tsutsui, N.D. Differential Sharing of Chemical Cues by Social Parasites Versus Social Mutualists in a Three-Species Symbiosis. J Chem Ecol 42, 277–285 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0692-0

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