The evolution of hydrocarbon pheromone parsimony in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) - interplay of colony odor uniformity and odor idiosyncrasy. A review
The evolution of hydrocarbon pheromone parsimony in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) - interplay of colony odor uniformity and odor idiosyncrasy. A review
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蚂蚁（膜翅目：蚁科）碳氢信息素简约的进化 - 群体气味均匀性和气味特质的相互作用。
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发表时间：
2007
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通讯作者：
A. Hefetz
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作者：
A. Hefetz
碳氢化合物是昆虫表皮上的主要脂质成分，并且通常为昆虫提供防水层以防止干燥。在许多昆虫中，这类化学物质被用作信息素。在社会性昆虫中，特别是在蚂蚁中，表皮碳氢化合物（CHC）至少具有两种信息素功能。它们作为识别线索，促进殖民地的孤立性，保护它免受寄生虫或同种入侵。支持这一功能的证据是它们的极端复杂性，它们的殖民地特定的组成，在少数情况下，还表现出遇到蚂蚁之间的攻击性升高或降低，这是它们被涂上的标签（外星人或巢友）的功能。CHC的第二个功能是传递生育信号。在许多蚂蚁物种，它被证明是肥沃的个人（皇后，gamergates，或产卵工人）有CHC的配置文件是不同于他们的不育巢。这可以表示为混合成分的单个或一个小子集的增加，或者整个混合中的差异。事实上，这些信号具有丰富的支链烷烃，这降低了表皮不渗透性的断点，从而对个人施加成本，表明这些可能构成诚实的信号。这种双重功能似乎是矛盾的，因为巢友识别需要均匀的群体气味，即，均匀的CHC组成，而育性信号需要特异性，因为可育个体需要在殖民地成员中被挑选出来，而不是符合蜂群气味。一个可能的解决方案是，物种使用CHCs的巢识别不使用它们作为生育信号，反之亦然。我提出了一个替代的解决方案，使工人有可变的歧视阈值和响应信息素混合物中的差异，大或小，在contextdependent方式。
Hydrocarbons are the main lipid constituents on the insect cuticle, and generally provide the insect with a waterproof layer to prevent desiccation. In many insects this class of chemicals has been coopted to serve as pheromones. In social insects, in particular in ants cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) have at least two pheromonal functions. They act as recognition cues that facilitate colony insularity, protecting it from parasites or conspecific invasions. Supporting evidence for this function are their extreme complexity, their colony specific composition, and in a few cases also demonstrating elevated or reduced aggression between encountering ants as a function of the label (alien or nestmate) they were painted with. The second function of CHCs is in signaling fertility. In many ant species it was demonstrated that fertile individuals (queens, gamergates, or egg laying workers) have CHC profiles that are distinct from that of their sterile nestmates. This can be expressed as the augmentation of a single or a small subset of the blend components, or differences in the entire blend. The fact that these signals have an abundance of branched alkanes, which lower the break point of cuticular impermeability thus imposing cost on the individual, indicates that these may constitute honest signals. This dual function seems contradictory since nestmate recognition necessitates a uniform colony odor, i.e., uniform CHC composition, whereas fertility signal requires idiosyncrasy since the fertile individual needs to be singled out among the colony members rather than conform to colony odor. A possible resolution is that species that use CHCs for nestmate recognition do not use them as fertility signals and vice versa. I propose an alternative solution whereby workers have variable discrimination thresholds and response to differences in the pheromone blend, large or small, in a contextdependent manner.