Slave-making ants

An example of an uncharacterized chemical cue from ant brood occurs in the obligatory slave-making ant, Polyergus breviceps. Pupae of this species are cared for by their enslaved host worker, while pupae of other species are consumed [125]. 

Topoff, T. "Slave-making Ants." American Scientist 78 (1990) 520-528. 

The sex pheromone of the slave-making ant, Polyergus breviceps, has been identified as a blend of methyl-6-methylsalicylate and 3-ethyl-4-methylpentanol. Each compound alone was completely unattractive to males whereas a blend of the two compounds attracted hundreds of males in a couple of hours. 

J.-L. (1997). Plasticity of the cuticular hydrocarbon profile of the slave-making ant Polyergus rufescens depending on the social environment. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 116B, 287-302. 

Bonavita-Cougourdan, A., Riviere, G., Provost, E., Bagneres, A.-G., Roux, M., Dusticier, G. and Clement, J.-L. (1996). Selective adaptation of the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of the slave making ants Polyergus rufescens Latr. and their Formica rufibarbis and F. cunicularia Latr. slaves. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 113B, 313-329. 

Queens of the slave-making ants depend on host species for nest foundation. Newly mated queens usurp host colonies and replace the resident queens. Parasitic queens may obtain immediate care by resident host workers. In the species where this occurs, we might expect intense selective pressures in favor of fast acquisition of recognition cues that mimic their hosts. 

Selection pressures on cuticular chemical resemblance between hosts and parasites are expected to be even weaker when parasite sexuals are taken into account. Indeed, sexuals are cared for by enslaved host workers and live inside the natal colonies until the mating flight. As expected, in Chalepoxenus muellerianus (a slave making ant which enslaves multiple hosts of the related Temnothorax species), the complex hydrocarbon profiles of sexuals depend on the host-rearing species, with a bias towards the host species used by each parasite population, but with differences among the chemical signatures of parasite sexuals and workers of the host species (Beibl et al., 2007). It is obvious, from the example... 

Beibl, J., D Ettorre, P., and Heinze, J. (2007). Cuticular profiles and mating preference in a slave-making ant. Insectes Soc., 54, 174-182. 

Brandt, M., Heinze, J., Schmitt, T. and Foitzik, S. (2006). Convergent evolution of the Dufour s gland secretion as a propaganda substance in the slave-making ant genera Protomognathus and Harpagoxenus. Insectes Soc., 53, 291-299. 

Review Pheromones, Birch, M. C., Ed., North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977 see also popular articles Slave-Making Ants, Topoff, H. Am. Sci., 1990, 78, 520 Empire of the Ants, Wilson, E. D. Discoverer, 1990, 3, 44. 

Ants have developed various ways to overcome their prey. Examples of slave-making ants, thief ants and crypsis in ants are now well known. Ants invade termite nests, forage on them and return to their own colony without being molested. How can this occur ... 

Buschinger, A. and Alloway, T. M. (1979) Sexual behaviour in the slave-making ant, Harpagoxenus canadensis (M. R. Smith) and sexual pheromone experiments with H. canadensis, H. americanus (Emery), and H. sublaevis (Nylander) (Hymenoptera Formicidae). Z. TierpsychoL, 49, 113-19. 

Alloway, T. M. (1979) Raiding behaviour of two species of slave-making ants, Harpa-goxenus americanus (Emery) and Leptothorax duloticus (Wesson). Anim. Behav., 27, 202-10. 

Buschinger, A. and Alloway, T. M. (1979) Sexual behaviour in the slave-making ant. 

Regnier, T. E. and Wilson, E. O. (1971) Chemical communication and propaganda in slave-making ants. Science, 172, 267-9. 

An unrelated group of alkylpyrrolidines have been found in the venom glands of the slave-making ant Harpegoxenus sublaevis and its slaves Leptothorax acervorum and L. muscorum (Figure 9.8). The amounts are... 

Figure 9.8 Substitited pyrrolidines from the venom of a slave-making ant and its slaves.

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