Skip to main content
Log in

Effects of Azteca trigona alarm pheromones on heterospecific ant behavior

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Insectes Sociaux Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Animals communicate with each other using a variety of signal modalities, any of which can provide useful information to non-intended receivers, or eavesdroppers. Eavesdropping on chemical signals is a widespread phenomenon but its role in shaping the behavior of multi-species assemblages is poorly known. Here, we tested the hypothesis that workers of multiple Neotropical ant species change their behaviors when exposed to odors of the common canopy ant, Azteca trigona. We exposed workers of 16 canopy ant species (five subfamilies) to A. trigona alarm pheromones and compared their behavioral responses to the behavior of ants in control treatments (ambient air). Seven species showed distinct responses to A. trigona odors relative to the control. The most common behavioral responses were increased antennation and running. The results of this study suggest that eavesdropping on heterospecific alarm signals allows ants to avoid generalized threats or negative interactions with aggressive A. trigona workers. Such eavesdropping presumably is selectively advantageous and may determine local arboreal ant species distributions and interspecific differences in access to resources in the forest canopy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and material

Raw data for this project are available on FigShare with the following https://doi.org/10.25422/azu.data.13963886.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

Noah Gripshover and Aspen Workman assisted in the lab; Benjamin Adams, Jelena Bujan, and Daniella Prince assisted in the field; Evan Gora provided statistical advice. Comments from Benjamin Adams, Natalie Christian, Perri Eason, Evan Gora, Kane Lawhorn, Daniella Prince, and Jeannine Richards improved the manuscript. We thank Melissa Cano and the staff of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for logistical support in Panama. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grants GRF-2018265609 to RLW, IOS-1656625 and IOS-2101059 to CJF, and DEB-1252614 to SPY.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grants GRF-2018265609 to RLW, IOS-1656625 and IOS-2101059 to CJF, and DEB-1252614 to SPY.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analyses were performed by RLW. All authors contributed to the writing, and read and approved the final version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to C. J. Frost or S. P. Yanoviak.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

None.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 1521 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wells, R.L., Frost, C.J. & Yanoviak, S.P. Effects of Azteca trigona alarm pheromones on heterospecific ant behavior. Insect. Soc. 68, 359–365 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-021-00836-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-021-00836-2

Keywords

Navigation