Evolution of acoustic communication in fungus-growing ant societies
Evolution of acoustic communication in fungus-growing ant societies
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DOI：
10.21203/rs.3.rs-948296/v2
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发表时间：
2021-09
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
T. Murakami;H. Sakamoto;S. Higashi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Murakami;H. Sakamoto;S. Higashi
蚂蚁会“说话”吗？如果是这样的话，在蚂蚁社会里说话有多重要？例如，通过信息素进行的化学交流被认为是蚂蚁社会的主要交流工具；然而，一个主要的问题是，仅靠化学物质是否能够控制高度分化的社会行为。在本研究中，我们以新热带生态系统中的关键生物--农业蚂蚁为研究对象，进行了详细的声学分析。我们的结果表明，在生长真菌的蚂蚁中，声音交流比之前认为的更频繁、更关键。研究发现，蚂蚁发出发声的声音的频率与社会结构的复杂性显著相关。结构分析表明，发声器官缝隙的面积和数目与体型呈显著正相关。在声音抑制组中，切叶蚂蚁维持真菌花园的能力显著低于信息素分泌抑制组。这些结果表明，变得更爱唠叨的蚂蚁可能会诱发利他主义行为，创造更复杂的社会。这项研究的结果可能不仅适用于社会进化研究，也适用于有效控制蚂蚁行为。
Do ants ‘talk’? If so, how important is talking in ant societies? Chemical communication, through pheromones for example, was thought to be the main communication tool in ant societies; however, a major question is whether chemical substances alone can control highly differentiated social behaviours. In this study, we focused on the ‘talk’ of agricultural ants, key organisms in the Neotropical ecosystem, and conducted a detailed acoustic analysis. Our results indicate that in fungus-growing ants, acoustic communication is a much more frequent and critical factor than previously believed. The frequency of stridulatory sound-production recordings from the ants were found to be significantly correlated with social structure complexity. Structural analysis indicated that both the area and number of slits in the stridulatory acoustic organs were significantly correlated with body size. The ability of leaf-cutting ants to maintain fungus gardens was significantly lower in the sound-inhibited group than in the pheromone secretion-inhibited group. These results suggest that ants that have become ‘chattier’ may induce altruistic behaviours and create more complex societies. The findings of this study may be applicable not only to social evolution studies but also for effectively controlling ant behaviours.