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Morphology of the exocrine glands associated with the maxillolabial complex in the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the morphological characteristics of three glands that are associated with the labium and the maxillae in the female castes as well as males of the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 using serial semithin sections and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We propose to name these glands as the postmentum base gland, the stipes base gland and the cardo base gland. The cardo base gland represents what was previously known as the maxillary gland, the two other glands are novel findings. They all belong to class-3 glands and have no reservoir for the storage of secretion. Their morphology is similar among the studied categories (major worker, minor worker, queen and male). The postmentum base gland is made up by 10–15 secretory units that open through the articulation membrane on both sides of the base of the labial postmentum with no significant differences among castes. The stipes base gland is formed by a cluster of secretory units that open at the articulation membrane between cardo and stipes. This gland is much larger in major workers (almost 140 cells) than in the other castes (approx. 50–60 cells). The cardo base gland opens through the membrane that connects the cardo and stipes to the head capsule. The number of cells of this gland is much larger in major workers and queens (approximately 190 and 150, respectively) than in minor workers and males (approximately 45 and 40, respectively). No information is yet available on the function of the glands.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants no. 31570388), MOST-Funded Foreign Expert Introduction Project (2019), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. 2452019174) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 32071490). We are very grateful to An Vandoren for making the histological sections and to Guoyun Zhang for assistance with scanning microscopy. Our sincere thanks go to Adrian Richter for very valuable discussions on head anatomy, and to two anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Management of Forest Bio-Disaster, College of Forestry, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    W. Xu & H. He

  2. Zoological Institute, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    J. Billen

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  1. W. Xu
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  2. H. He
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  3. J. Billen
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Correspondence to H. He or J. Billen.

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Xu, W., He, H. & Billen, J. Morphology of the exocrine glands associated with the maxillolabial complex in the ant Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect. Soc. 68, 59–67 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-020-00793-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-020-00793-2

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