Weil, Tobias and Hoffmann, Katharina and Kroiss, Johannes and Strohm, Erhard and Korb, Judith (2009) Scent of a queen-cuticular hydrocarbons specific for female reproductives in lower termites. NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN, 96 (2). pp. 315-319. ISSN 0028-1042,
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
In social insects, it is assumed that signals of the queen inform nestmates about her reproductive status. Thus, workers forego their own reproduction if the queen signals high fertility. In hemimetabolous termites, little is known about reproductive inhibition, but evidence exists for a royal-pair control. Workers of lower termites exhibit a high developmental flexibility and are potentially able to become reproductives, but the presence of a fertile reproductive restrains them from reaching sexual maturity. The nature of this control, however, remains unknown. Here, we report on qualitative differences in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles between queens and workers of the basal drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus. Queens were characterized by a shift to long-chained and branched hydrocarbons. Most remarkably, similar chemical patterns are regarded as fertility cues of reproductives in social Hymenoptera. This might suggest that both groups of social insects convergently evolved similar chemical signatures. The present study provides deeper insights into how termites might have socially exploited these signatures from sexual communication in their cockroach-like ancestor.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | ISOPTERA-RHINOTERMITIDAE; ANT; FERTILITY; SIGNAL; CUES; Termites; Cuticular hydrocarbons; Fertility signals; Chemical communication; Queen signal |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine |
| Divisions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Innere Medizin III (Hämatologie und Internistische Onkologie) Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Evolutionary Ecology (Prof. Dr. Erhard Strohm) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Oct 2020 06:53 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Oct 2020 06:53 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/29543 |
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