Deception and chemical warfare in Cardiocondyla ant males

无翼的雄性蚂蚁（学名：Acoustic condyla obscurior）与它们的无翼对手进行致命的战斗，以获得独占殖民地雌性的机会，但它们不会攻击有翼的竞争对手。这种令人惊讶的耐受性似乎是由于有翼的男性模仿女性sexuals.The目标的气味，该项目是澄清化学女性mimicry的基础，特别是角质层碳氢化合物的性质，动态和稳定性的模式，模仿女性的潜在成本模仿和愚弄无翼的男性，和这种特殊的情况下，作弊的进化维护。此外，我们打算确定，如果这些分泌物，其中无翼的男性涂抹到对手的身体在战斗中，显然引起工人的侵略对besmeared个人，只是由粪便，以及无翼的男性是否因此利用一般的敌意，卫生的反应，污染与粪便的男性竞争。我们的研究将结合联合收割机气相色谱、质谱、遗传分析和行为观察，有助于更好地了解雄蛛争斗的进化，以及更普遍的动物中不诚实的化学交流。

Wingless males of the ant species Cardiocondyla obscurior engage in lethal fighting with their wingless rivals to obtain exclusive access to the colony's female sexuals, but they do not attack their winged competitors. This surprising tolerance appears to result from winged males mimicking the odour of female sexuals.Aim of this project is to clarify the basis of chemical female mimicry, in particular the nature, dynamics and stability of the pattern of cuticular hydrocarbons, the potential costs of mimicry for female-mimics and the fooled wingless males, and the evolutionary maintenance of this particular case of cheating. In addition we intend to determine if those secretions, which wingless males smear onto the body of opponents during fights and which apparently elicit worker aggression against the besmeared individual, simply consist of faeces, and whether wingless males thus exploit a general hostile, hygienic response to contamination with faeces for male-male competition. Our study will combine gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, genetic analyses and behavioural observations and shall help to better understand the evolution of male fighting in Cardiocondyla and, more general, of dishonest chemical communication in animals.