Myrmica

An example from ants is the acceptance of the caterpillar of the parasitic butterfly Maculinea rebeli by its host Myrmica schencki [132]. The caterpillar chemically mimics ant larvae and, in its final instar, drops from its food plant and waits for a foraging ant worker to bring it to the brood chambers of the host colony [133]. 

Not all caterpillars achieve this comfortable lifestyle. Enjoying the ants hospitality depends on being taken home by the right kind of ants. The caterpillars have no control over this crucial matter, because the first Myrmica ant to notice a caterpillar takes it off to its own nest. Although each Myrmica species can distinguish its own larvae from those of related species, all local Myrmica ants accept the caterpillars as their own. How this comes about is unclear. Like other insect larvae living openly in ant nests, the caterpillars presumably carry the odor of ant larvae. Perhaps they smell enough... 

R) and (S)-3-octanol, (i )-2-dodecanol, (i )-2-methyl-4-heptanol and (i )-2-methyl-4-octanol, the pheromones of Myrmica scabrinodis, Crematogaster castanea, C. liengmei, C. auberti and Metamasius hemipterus were synthesized starting from nonracemic P-hydroxy sulfides. 

To date, only two other sets of inquilines have been directly examined for their ability to biosynthesize suites of cuticular hydrocarbons that mimic that of their hosts. Larvae of the syrphid fly Microdon albicomatus are obligate predators of the ant Myrmica incompleta, and have qualitatively identical hydrocarbons as host pupae (but different relative abundances). As with the beetles above, [l-14C]acetate was directly incorporated into the fly cuticular hydrocarbons in the same proportions as the various classes of hydrocarbons present (Howard et al., 1990). The other study was by Akino et al. (1999) and involved the larvae... 

Akino T., Knapp J. J., Thomas J. A. and Elmes G. W. (1999) Chemical mimicry and host specificity in the butterfly Maculinea rebeli, a social parasite of Myrmica ant colonies. Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. B, 266, 1419-1426. 

Howard R. W., Stanley-Samuelson D. W. and Akre R. D. (1990) Biosynthesis and chemical mimicry of cuticular hydrocarbons from the obligate predator, Microdon albicomatus Novak (Diptera Syrphidae) and its ant prey, Myrmica incompleta Provancher (Hymenoptera Formicidae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 63, 437 443. 

Brian, M.V. and Blum, M.S. (1969). The influence of Myrmica queen head extracts on larval growth../. Insect Physiol., 15, 2213-2223. 

Elmes, G. W., Akino, T Thomas, J. A., Clarke, R.T. and Knapp, J. J. (2002). Interspecific differences in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of Myrmica ants are sufficiently consistent to explain host specificity by Maculinea (large blue) butterflies. 

Lenoir, A., Malosse, C. and Yamaoka, R. (1997). Chemical mimicry between parasitic ants of the genus Formicoxenus and their host Myrmica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Biochem. Syst. Ecol., 25, 379-389. 

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