▪ Abstract This review covers selected literature from 1982 to the present on some of the ecological, behavioral, and biochemical aspects of hydrocarbon use by insects and other arthropods. Major ecological and behavioral topics are species- and gender-recognition, nestmate recognition, task-specific cues, dominance and fertility cues, chemical mimicry, and primer pheromones. Major biochemical topics include chain length regulation, mechanism of hydrocarbon formation, timing of hydrocarbon synthesis and transport, and biosynthesis of volatile hydrocarbon pheromones of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. In addition, a section is devoted to future research needs in this rapidly growing area of science.

/pdf/ecological-behavioral-and-biochemical-aspects-of-insect-4bbi7ldpkx.pdf

Ecological, behavioral, and biochemical aspects of insect hydrocarbons*

Ecology and Evolution of Communication in Social Insects

Autotomy is defined herein as the shedding of a body part, where (1) the loss of the body part is defensive (autotomy helps prevent the whole animal from being compromised and is in response to external stimuli); (2) shearing occurs by an intrinsic mechanism along a breakage plane (there has been selection for certain body parts to be pulled off easily); and (3) the loss is controlled - the animal moves away from the trapped limb, the loss is under some form of central control (neural or hormonal), or the body part is detached quickly. Autotomy (under this defensive definition) has evolved independently for a diverse array of body parts in many taxa; we have summarised available information for over 200 invertebrate species. The advantages of autotomy include escape from entrapment, an effective form of attack, expulsion of an infected body part or in limiting wounding. We discuss how the incidence of autotomy may therefore be correlated with various traits such as limb function, sex differences, other defence mechanisms, habitat disturbance, and sociality. There are also costs associated with autotomy. Short-term costs include loss of a specialised appendage or organ, reduced speed and stability, or even death. Long-term costs include compromised foraging and feeding (often leading to reduced growth), altered anti-predator, competitive or reproductive behaviour, and even defective development. Regenerating lost appendages may also incur significant costs for the individual. We examine the costs and benefits of autotomy, and discuss the evolutionary selective pressures that contribute to the prevalence and effectiveness of autotomy in invertebrates.

Leave it all behind: a taxonomic perspective of autotomy in invertebrates.

In social insects, recognition of nestmates from aliens is based on olfactory cues, and many studies have demonstrated that such cues are contained within the lipid layer covering the insect cuticle. These lipids are usually a complex mixture of tens of compounds in which aliphatic hydrocarbons are generally the major components. The experiments described here tested whether artificial changes in the cuticular profile through supplementation of naturally occurring alkanes and alkenes in honeybees affect the behaviour of nestmate guards. Compounds were applied to live foragers in microgram quantities and the bees returned to their hive entrance where the behaviour of the guard bees was observed. In this fashion we compared the effect of single alkenes with that of single alkanes; the effect of mixtures of alkenes versus that of mixtures of alkanes and the whole alkane fraction separated from the cuticular lipids versus the alkene fraction. With only one exception (the comparison between n-C(19) and (Z)9-C(19)), in all the experiments bees treated with alkenes were attacked more intensively than bees treated with alkanes. This leads us to conclude that modification of the natural chemical profile with the two different classes of compounds has a different effect on acceptance and suggests that this may correspond to a differential importance in the recognition signature.

/pdf/nestmate-recognition-cues-in-the-honey-bee-differential-1j8ha6v14d.pdf

Nestmate Recognition Cues in the Honey Bee: Differential Importance of Cuticular Alkanes and Alkenes

Building upon the idea that humans may be a eusocial species (i.e., rely on multigenerational and cooperative care of young, utilize division of labor for successful survival), we conjecture that suicide among humans represents a derangement of the self-sacrificial aspect of eusociality. In this article, we outline the characteristics of eusociality, particularly the self-sacrificial behavior seen among other eusocial species (e.g., insects, shrimp, mole rats). We then discuss parallels between eusocial self-sacrificial behavior in nonhumans and suicide in humans, particularly with regard to overarousal states, withdrawal phenomena, and perceptions of burdensomeness. In so doing, we make the argument that death by suicide among humans is an exemplar of psychopathology and is due to a derangement of the self-sacrificial behavioral suite found among eusocial species. Implications and future directions for research are also presented.

/pdf/suicide-as-a-derangement-of-the-self-sacrificial-aspect-of-1km32j3bln.pdf

Suicide as a derangement of the self-sacrificial aspect of eusociality

The results of recent studies by our group have suggested that in social wasps of the genus Polistes the Dufour’s gland is involved in kin recognition. In fact, the same hydrocarbons occurring on the cuticle are found in the gland secretion, and in P. dominulus the composition of the glandular secretion is more similar in foundresses belonging to the same colonies than in heterocolonial foundresses. In this study, P. dominulus colonies were experimentally presented with previously treated dead conspecific females. These lures had been deprived of their epicuticular lipids and coated with epicuticular or Dufour’s gland secretion extracts from females hetero- or homocolonial with respect to the tested colonies. The behaviour of the colonies towards these lures indicates that, like the epicuticular lipids, the Dufour’s gland secretion is involved in nestmate recognition.

Behavioural evidence for the involvement of Dufour’s gland secretion in nestmate recognition in the social wasp Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Dufour gland secretion of Polistes wasp: Chemical composition and possible involvement in nestmate recognition (Hymenoptera: vespidae)

Summary

Chemicals from the venom gland elicited alarm behaviour and attack in the Asian polistine wasp Polybioides raphigastra. When presented with crushed venom glands workers of this wasp respond with a mass stinging attack. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses show that the major volatiles in the venom gland are alkanes, monounsaturated alkenes and 2-alcohols. Several pyrazines, a spiroacetal and aromatics were also identified as trace compounds. The anatomy and morphology of the sting apparatus are reported, and we describe sting autotomy in this wasp. This is the first such report for the Ropalidiinae. The structures responsible for autotomy are likely to be large barbs present on the sting lancets, and a conspicuous tooth present on the medial side of the left lancet. Sting autotomy in P. raphigastra probably plays an important role in the localization of sites of attack by wasps defending the nest.

Venom induces alarm behaviour in the social wasp Polybioides raphigastra (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): an investigation of alarm behaviour, venom volatiles and sting autotomy

The contents of the venom sacs of the two epiponine species Polybia occidentalis (Olivier) and P. sericea (Olivier) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) have been analysed by GC‐MS for their volatile constituents. The mixture of volatiles was found to be very diverse in both the species. The spiroacetal (E,E)‐2,8‐dimethyl‐1,7‐dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane, was present in both species and was the major component in P. occidentalis, where it was determined to show (2S,6R,8S)‐configuration. An enantiomerically pure synthetic sample was tested in field bioassays on P. occidentalis colonies and was clearly shown to elicit alarm behaviour.

Chemical characterization of the alarm pheromone in the venom of Polybia occidentalis and of volatiles from the venom of P. sericea: Alarm pheromone in the social wasp Polybia occidentalis

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Behavioural evidence for the involvement of Dufour’s gland secretion in nestmate recognition in the social wasp Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Dufour gland secretion of Polistes wasp: Chemical composition and possible involvement in nestmate recognition (Hymenoptera: vespidae)

Venom induces alarm behaviour in the social wasp Polybioides raphigastra (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): an investigation of alarm behaviour, venom volatiles and sting autotomy

Chemical characterization of the alarm pheromone in the venom of Polybia occidentalis and of volatiles from the venom of P. sericea: Alarm pheromone in the social wasp Polybia occidentalis