Interestingly, the relative composition varied strongly amongst Cr. modiglianii colonies, and this variance remained constant in wild and captive colonies, The crematoenone profile might consequently be extremely genetically determined. Having said that, since nestmate recognition is mediated by means of cuticular hydrocarbons, they may also serve as intercourse pheromones like in lots of solitary insects, Hence, differing crematoenone profiles should not result in reproductive isolation. In preliminary ana lyses, we didn’t obtain genetic differentiation amongst Cr. modiglianii colonies in accordance to crematoenone profile, delivering no proof for cryp tic species in Cr. modiglianii. The black Ca. rufifemur frequently, but not always dif ferentiated concerning nestmate and non nestmate Cr. modiglianii, In an earlier review, this was accurate even for living Cr.
modiglianii. Ca. rufifemur often failed to discriminate nestmate and non nestmate, and we hypothesize that this was due to inter colony variation in chemical distances amongst Cr. modiglianii, and also to the extended chain hydrocarbons selleck in Cr. modiglianii, which may well hamper inter colony discrimination. In contrast, the red Ca. rufifemur wide variety did not differentiate among nestmate and non nestmate Cr. modiglianii treatment options, Note the Cr. modiglianii colonies residing that has a red Ca. rufifemur and these residing with black Ca. rufifemur possessed qualitatively different hydrocarbon profiles. the former ones possessed the two key cuticular compounds with the red Ca. rufifemur, which are ab sent in the latter ones, Therefore, it appears plausible that the black Ca.
rufifemur can understand the presence of these two compounds in non nestmate Cr. modiglianii, whereas the red Ca. rufifemur are unable to sense their absence, and hence fails to discriminate nestmate from non nestmate Cr. modiglianii. Crematoenones lessen interspecific aggression However not as recognition cues, crematoenones perform an important function in interspecific interactions LY500307 by decreasing Ca. rufifemur aggressiveness. While black Ca. rufifemur showed lower aggression in direction of allocolonial Cr. modiglianii or its surface extracts, their hydrocarbons alone elicited fierce attacks. Whenever we re additional the previously removed crematoenones to the allocolonial hydrocarbon fractions, the resulting aggression of Ca. rufifemur was lowered to an intracolonial level. A similar, albeit weaker impact was located with extracts of two other Crematogaster species. While Ca. rufifemur generally attacked dummies with these extracts, their aggression levels have been reduce immediately after crematoenone addition. Consequently, the crematoenones seem to perform as appease ment substances. It’s challenging to determine no matter whether crematoenones reduce aggression at a neuronal level or whether they mask the recognition cues, i.