Olfactory recognition processes in the interactions between the slavemaking ant Polyergus breviceps and its Formica hosts.
Item
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Title
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Olfactory recognition processes in the interactions between the slavemaking ant Polyergus breviceps and its Formica hosts.
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Identifier
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AAI9315523
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identifier
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9315523
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Creator
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Zimmerli, Ellen Jeanne.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Howard Topoff
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Psychobiology | Biology, Zoology | Biology, Entomology
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Abstract
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In ant societies, recognition is based on chemical communication, and has played an important role in the evolution of social parasitism, such as slavemaking ants. Slavemaking ants live in "mixed" nests with their "slave" hosts, who perform all colony functions. This dissertation reports the results of three investigations of olfactory recognition in the slavemaking ant Polyergus breviceps. (1) In a study of slave odor effects on aggression in individuals from mixed nests, individuals were placed in pairs in small (9 x 9 x 2 cm) arenas for 15 minutes and aggression was measured. Slave odor was found to significantly affect intraspecific and interspecific (Polyergus-Formica) aggression between individuals from colonies with different slave species. Slave odor did not affect aggression between individuals of different slavemaking species. (2) A pupa choice test investigated the tendency to retrieve and nurse obligatory slavemaker (Polyergus) and facultative slavemaker (Formica wheeleri) pupae in freeliving and enslaved Formica occulta workers. Nursing of slavemaker brood was facilitated in enslaved Formica workers (with prior exposure to the slavemaker brood), but freeliving Formica workers nursed Polyergus but not Formica wheeleri pupae. Brood of obligatory slavemakers, which must be nursed by adult slave workers with no prior exposure, must possess an attractive pheromone for colony foundation to be successful. (3) A study was conducted on host-queen killing and olfactory transfer during colony founding by Polyergus queens, which must penetrate a Formica nest, kill the queen, and become accepted by the workers. In the laboratory Polyergus queens attacked and bit dead (and therefore motionless) Formica queens, after which they were accepted by any colony of Formica belonging to the same species of the dead queen. Any adoption-facilitating chemicals obtained by the Polyergus queens were still effective one week after killing the host Formica queen. Some Polyergus queens showed little interest in attacking queens of a Formica species not found in the nest of origin, while others killed the queen and were accepted by the workers. Polyergus queens showed no interest in attacking newly mated F. occulta queens.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
