Pheromone nest recognition

A wasp presumably identifies appropriate nests by odor, discriminating among very similar ant-recognition pheromones. Virtually the only chemical information available in this entire set of... 

The multifaceted function of cuticular hydrocarbons necessitates further theoretical as well as empirical clarification. For example, their use as both fertility signals and nest-mate recognition pheromones may seem contradictory, since the first function requires within-nest idiosyncrasy, i.e., for discriminating fertile from sterile individuals, while the second function requires within-colony odor uniformity. The response threshold hypothesis (Le Conte and Hefetz, 2008) attempts to resolve this apparent conflict in function, as well as to provide a suitable framework for future experiments to test specific parts of the hypothesis. 

The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is a widely distributed pest in the southern USA. There exists a queen-recognition pheromone of S. invicta, which attracts worker ants, and causes them to bring inanimated objects treated with queen extracts into their nests as if they were real queens. One of the... 

The coordination and integration of colony activities, in particular recruitment for foraging and defence, has been an essential contribution to the success of social insects the road to sociality was paved with pheromones (Blum, 1974). Pheromones play a central role in these activities and in other ftinctions such as recognition (of caste, sex, kin, colony, and species), caste determination, trophallaxis (mouth-to-mouth transfer of food), nest entrance marking and colony reproduction (Winston, 1992). Termites show convergent evolution of chemical signaling with the eusocial Hymenoptera. 

In some species of insects, recognition pheromones have been identified. In carpenter ants, a caste-specific secretion has been found in the mandibular glands of the males of five different species. These secretions have several functions, one of which is to allow members of the same species to recognize one another. Insects not having the correct recognition odor are immediately attacked and expelled from the nest. In one species of carpenter ant, methyl anthranilate has been shown to be an important component of the recognition pheromone. 

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