Linepithema humile, argentine ants

Liang D. and Silverman J. (2000) You are what you eat diet modifies cuticular hydrocarbons and nestmate recognition in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. Naturwissenschaften 87, 412-416. 

Torres, C. W., Brandt, M. and Tsutsui, N.D. (2007). The role of cuticular hydrocarbons as chemical cues for nestmate recognition in the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). Insect Soc., 54, 363-373. 

The Argentine ant Linepithema humile which has invaded Australia and Mediterranean Europe produces a macrolide evidently made from a fatty acid where synthesis begins with 2-methylbutyric acid (Figure 3.39). The Dufour glands of halictine and coUetine bees frequently contain mixtures containing macrocyclic lactones. Colletes bees, for example. 

In 1949 Pavan isolated the substance he called iridomyrmecin from the Argentine ant Iridomyrmex humilis (now Linepithema humile). Iridomyrmecin, dolichodial and other monoterpenes with a methylcyclopen-tanoid structure are called iridoids (Figure 6.12). They act as defensive compounds in ants, stick insects, rove beetles and leaf beetle larvae. Some of the group (e.g. the isomer of nepetalactone shown in Figure 6.12) are also sex pheromones in aphids. Reaction of iridomyrmecin with... 

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