Queenless ants

Cuvillier-Hot V., Cobb M., Malosse C. and Peeters C. (2001) Sex, age and ovarian activity affect cuticular hydrocarbons in Diacamma ceylonese, a queenless ant. J. Insect Physiol. 47, 485 -93. 

Monnin, T. and Peeters, C. (1997). Cannibalism of subordinates eggs in the monogynous queenless ant Dinoponera quadriceps. Naturwissenschaften, 84,499-502. 

Monnin T., Malosse C., and Peeters C. (1998). Solid-phase microextraction and cuticular hydrocarbon differences related to reproductive activity in the queenless ant Dinoponera quadriceps. J. Chem. Ecol., 24,473 190. 

Cuvillier-Hot, V., Lenoir, A., Crewe, R. Malosse, C. and Peeters, C. (2004). Fertility signalling and reproductive skew in queenless ants. Anim. Behav., 68,1209-1219. 

Peeters, C., Monnin, T. and Malosse, C. (1999). Cuticular hydrocarbons correlated with reproductive status in a queenless ant. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, 266, 1323-1327. 

Fig. 2.3 Most animals have both anonymous pheromone signals and signature mixtures (Wyatt 2010). This is demonstrated in the cuticular hydrocarbons of the queenless ant Dinoponera quadriceps (Monnin et al. 1998). A gas chromatographic analysis of the cuticular hydrocarbons on the alpha female, the only fertilized and egg-laying individual in the colony, shows the anonymous hydrocarbon pheromone 9-hentriacontene (indicated by the asterisk) characteristic of alpha females in all colonies, together with the diverse range of other hydrocarbons which make up the colony odor. Her fellow colony members have the colony odor but lack the 9-hentriacontene. Ants photograph, courtesy Thibaud Monnin. Gas chromatogram, Monnin et al. (1998), with permission...

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