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Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles indicate reproductive status in the termite Zootermopsis nevadensis

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An Erratum to this article was published on 26 May 2012

Abstract

Reproductive division of labor in social insects is accompanied by the reliable communication of individual fertility status. A central question is whether there exists a general mechanism underlying this communication system across species. The best way to produce reliable information is through physiological markers tightly associated with reproductive status. Cuticular hydrocarbons exhibit this link to individual fertility in several species of ants, bees, and wasps, and we present the first evidence for such a system in a non-Hymenopteran eusocial species. In the termite Zootermopsis nevadensis, we identified four polyunsaturated alkenes, which only occur in significant amounts on reproductives that are actively producing gametes. These compounds are either absent or only occur in small amounts in soldiers, worker-like larvae, and secondary reproductives with inactive gonads. In contrast to Hymenopteran social insects, both sexes express the reproductive peaks. The reproductive-specific hydrocarbons may promote tending behavior by worker-like larvae or act as a primer pheromone, inhibiting the reproductive development of immature conspecifics.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the administrators of the Pebble Beach Company for permission to collect termites. We would also like to thank Kevin Haight for assisting with colony collection and maintenance, Thomas Schmitt for supplying a sample of 6,9-nonacosadiene, and Steven Pratt, Thomas Schmitt, and two referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. All experiments were conducted in accordance with American statutes governing research. The project was supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant ARZR-2007-02202.

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  1. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Jürgen Liebig, Dorit Eliyahu & Colin S. Brent

  2. US Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center, Maricopa, AZ, 85238, USA

    Colin S. Brent

  3. Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Jürgen Liebig

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Liebig, J., Eliyahu, D. & Brent, C.S. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles indicate reproductive status in the termite Zootermopsis nevadensis . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 1799–1807 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0807-5

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