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Ant communication in most species involves pheromones, which is a method using chemical trails for other ants or insects to find and follow. [ 1 ] However, ants of some species can communicate without using pheromones or chemical trails in general.
Depending on the function, there are different emission and reception scenarios. Ants, for example, emit alarm pheromones intermittently or continuously in the usually windless environment of the anthill. Trace pheromones are emitted by an ant as a moving source. Silkmoth sex pheromones are emitted in discrete scent threads in an air stream. [57]
Ants typically use trail pheromones to coordinate roles like nest defense and foraging. [6] Ants can produce a trail of defensive secretions that trigger an alarm response within their nestmates. [7] In regards to foraging, an ant can communicate the quality of a food source to its colony; the more rewarding a food source is, the higher the ...
For example, ants mark their paths with pheromones consisting of volatile hydrocarbons. Certain ants lay down an initial trail of pheromones as they return to the nest with food. This trail attracts other ants and serves as a guide. [21] As long as the food source remains available, visiting ants will continuously renew the pheromone trail.
In the natural world, ants of some species (initially) wander randomly, and upon finding food return to their colony while laying down pheromone trails. If other ants find such a path, they are likely to stop travelling at random and instead follow the trail, returning and reinforcing it if they eventually find food (see Ant communication).
Trophallaxis in carpenter ants Camponotus sp.. Trophallaxis is a form of social feeding in many insects that contributes to the formation of social bonds. [5] Trophallaxis serves as a means of communication, at least in bees, like M. genalis, [16] and ants. [17]
Chemical communication within a species can be usurped by other species in chemical mimicry. The mimic produces allomones or pheromones to influence the behaviour of another insect, the dupe, to the mimic's advantage. The process is important in ant mimicry where species that do not look like ants are accepted into the ant colony.
Physiology of eusociality in fire ants: three queen pheromones help to create and maintain the eusocial state of the colony. Loss of a primer pheromone triggers the development of replacement queens (dashed lines). [83] [84] Among ants, the queen pheromone system of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta includes both releaser and primer pheromones. A ...