BackgroundIn one-piece nesting termites, which nest and forage in a single piece of wood, soldier production increases during the swarming period, i.e. when the risk of invasion of their substrate and hence of their colony by dealates in search of a nesting substrate increases. In Neotermes chilensis, a one-piece nesting termite endemic to Chile, we hypothesized: i) that during swarming soldiers would defend their colony by showing higher aggressiveness toward non-nestmate than toward nestmate dealates, ii) that aggressiveness would negatively correlate with genetic relatedness of interacting soldier/dealate pairs and iii) that nestmate recognition would be based on differences in cues provided by cuticular compounds (CC) between nestmates and non-nestmate dealates.MethodsThe first hypothesis was tested using bioassays in which a soldier was confronted with a nestmate or a non-nestmate dealate; the second hypothesis by using microsatellites to assess genetic relatedness of the interacting pairs; and the third hypothesis using bioassays in which a soldier was confronted with a nestmate or a non-nestmate dead dealate with or without its CC and with dead dealates with interchanged CC between nestmate and non-nestmate.ResultsSoldiers were more aggressive toward non-nestmate than nestmate dealates, aggressiveness was inversely correlated with genetic relatedness of the interacting pair, and CC accounted for the differences in aggressiveness towards nestmate and non-nestmate dealates.ConclusionsDuring swarming, soldiers of N. chilensis protect their nest against invasion by non-nestmate conspecific dealates; discrimination is based on CC and aggressiveness correlates inversely with genetic relatedness of the interacting soldier/dealate pairs.

中文翻译：

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在整体筑巢白蚁中蜂拥而至时，在防御同种入侵巢穴中的巢友识别

背景在一块筑巢的白蚁中，在单块木头中筑巢和觅食，在蜂群期间，白蚁的产量增加，即当寻找筑巢基材的交易入侵它们的基质并因此入侵它们的群体的风险增加时。在智利特有的整体筑巢白蚁 Neotermes chilensis 中，我们假设：i) 在蜂拥而至的过程中，士兵会通过对非同巢白蚁表现出比对同巢白蚁更高的攻击性来保护他们的群体，ii) 攻击性与遗传相关性呈负相关相互作用的士兵/交易对和 iii) 同窝识别将基于同窝和非同窝同窝之间由表皮化合物 (CC) 提供的线索的差异。方法第一个假设是使用生物测定来检验的，其中一名士兵面对同窝或非同窝伙伴；第二个假设是通过使用微卫星来评估相互作用对的遗传相关性；和使用生物测定的第三个假设，其中士兵面对有或没有其 CC 的同窝或非同窝死者，以及在同窝和非同窝之间互换 CC 的死者。 结果士兵对非同窝者比对非同窝者更具攻击性同巢伙伴，攻击性与相互作用对的遗传相关性呈负相关，CC 解释了对同巢伙伴和非同巢伙伴的攻击性差异。 ;