Hydrocarbons incorporated into the cuticular profile through diet do not generate aggression in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile Mayr).

ROXANA JOSENS; PATRIZIA D´ETTORRE; NURIA MORROW GALLI

Foz do Iguaçu

Congreso; 32nd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology and 4th Congress of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology - 1st Joint Meeting; 2016

ALAEQ

Argentine ants are highlyinvasive in new environments, and commonly overexpress polydomy (neighboringnests show no aggression among them, thus establishing one supercolony). Thisspecies is well known to form large supercolonies that can extend for manykilometers in the invasive range. The lack of intraspecific aggression isconsidered one of the key factors of their success as invaders. Aggression onlyoccurs when an ant recognizes the cuticular profile of another ant as anon-nestmate. In this conceptual framework, we investigated (1) whether eightsaturated linear or methyl-branched hydrocarbons (CHs) with 23 to 30 carbonatoms could be incorporated into the cuticle through diet (2); whether the CHsthat were effectively incorporated could trigger aggression; and (3) thedynamics of incorporation of the CHs up to 3 days after they were ingested. Toidentify which CH was incorporated into the cuticle and to analyze theirdynamics after consumption, solvent extracts were analyzed via GasChromatography?Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). To test if these CHs could triggeraggression, behavioral tests were performed between treated and untreated ants.We found that (1) all CHs were effectively incorporated into the cuticle 24hours after ingestion; (2) none of the CHs tested elicited aggression; (3) allCHs remained on the cuticle 3 days after ingestion. Eventhough each CH was effectively incorporated into the cuticle within 24 hoursafter ingestion, its single presence was not enough to trigger aggressionduring the behavioral tests. We thus conclude that the CHs tested in this studyare not key cues for nestmate recognition in L. humile.