Solenopsis invicta pheromone

The queen is usually reproductively dominant within the colony and uses chemical cues as both primer and releaser pheromones to suppress the production or fecundity of other sexuals, inhibit reproduction by worker castes, modulate reproductive behaviors (e.g., inhibit swarming and orient swarms), attract males, regulate worker tasks and worker ontogeny, and produce host repellents in slave-making species. Considering the importance of queen semiochemicals in social hymenoptera, few queen pheromones have been chemically identified. The queens of most social hymenopteran colonies are attractive to workers, allowing them to be properly tended as well as to facilitate the dissemination of other pheromone cues. However, the retinue pheromone has been chemically identified in very few species. In the 1980s, queen pheromone components were identified in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta [91,92], and in the Pharaoh s ant, Monomoriumpharaonis [93]. 

Although many queen-produced pheromones are actively being studied in ants, particularly in the fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) [10,105-110], chemical identifications remain elusive. However, there have been a few recent advances in ants. The queen of the slave-making species Polyergus rufescens produces de-cyl butanoate 60 that repels host workers when upsurping a colony [111]. Males of Formica lugubris are attracted to alate queens by undecane 61, tridecane 62 and (4Z)-tridec-4-ene 63 [112]. 

Glancey BM (1986) The queen recognition pheromone of Solenopsis invicta. In Lofgren CS, Vander Meer RK (eds) Fire ants and leaf-cutting ants biology and management. Westview Press, Boulder, p 223... 

Thirdly let ns consider ants. They are a social gronp and may forage across snbstantial distances as a group. Ants lay down a molecnlar trail for other ants to follow. The molecnles involved are termed trail pheromones. Now there are many species of ants and they nse different trail pheromones for the obvions reason of being able to follow the right trail as opposed to that of some other species. That for the hre ant, Solenopsis invicta, is a hydrocarbon of moderate complexity ... 

Vargo, E. L. and Hulsey, C. D. (2000). Multiple glandular origins of queen pheromones in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. J. Insect Physiol., 46,1151-1159. 

Vargo, E.L. (1997). Poison gland of queen fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) is the source of a primer pheromone. Naturwissenschaften, 84, 507-510. 

Rocca, J.R., Tumlinson, J.H., Glancey, B.M., and Lofgren, C.S., Synthesis and stereochemistry of tetrahydro-3,5-dimethyl-6-(l-methylbutyl)-2ff-pyran-2-one, a component of the queen recognition pheromone of Solenopsis invicta. Tetrahedron Lett., 24, 1893, 1983. 

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... 

Fig. 15.10 Trail pheromones identified from myrmicine ants, indicating the diversity of structures encountered. ( l) Atta texana (Tumlinson et al., 1972) andcephalotes (Riley et al.y 1974b) (b) A. sexdens rubropilosa (Cross et aL, 1979) and Myrmica spp. (Ever-shed et al., 1981) (c) Lasius fuliginosus (Huwyler et al., 1975) (d) Monomorium pharaonis (Ritter et al., 1977) (e) Solenopsis invicta (Williams et a/., 1981 Vandermeer etal., 1981).

The use of pheromones by ants to control the behavior and reproduction of workers has not been investigated so successfully as the analogous pheromones in honey bees and termites (Wilson, 1971). Most ant queens are highly attractive to their workers the source of the attractant in Solenopsis invicta has been identified as the poison sac (Vandermeer et al., 1980). In the same species, Fletcher and Blum (1981) have demonstrated the presence of a non-volatile pheromone in the queen, which is transferred around the colony by the workers, and inhibits dealation and obgenesis in the virgin females in the same nest. 

Vandermeer, R. K., Williams, F. D. and Lofgren, C. S. (1981) Hydrocarbon components of the trail pheromone of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Tetrahedron Letters, 22, 1651-4. 

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