Insectes Sociaux最新文献

Gut microbiomes play a significant role in the health, development, and behavior of numerous species, including honey bees (Apis mellifera). Worker honey bees exhibit varying degrees of hygienic behavior, which involves the removal of unhealthy brood to mitigate disease within their colony. However, the potential relationship between hygienic behavior and the honey bee gut microbiome has not been previously investigated. In this study, we compared gut microbiota in honey bees engaged in hygienic behavior (hygiene performers) versus those not exhibiting this behavior (non-hygiene performers) using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were identified as the predominant phyla. Notably, three bacterial species (Apilactobacillus kunkeei, Bartonella apis, and Frischella perrara) were found to be more abundant in hygiene performer bees compared to non-hygiene performer bees. Additionally, hygiene performer bees showed a higher diversity of amplicon sequence variants, with Apibacter mensalis being exclusively present in hygiene performer bees and absent in non-hygiene performer bees. These findings reveal an association between gut microbiota composition and hygienic behavior in honey bees, which may provide a foundation for future research exploring probiotic development and other strategies to enhance honey bee health.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00040-025-01029-x.

In species where both sexes care for offspring, one parent-generally the female-typically provides more care than the other. While current theory offers broad predictions on the evolution of sex differences in parental care, it remains unclear whether ecological factors, such as short-term environmental variation and the intrinsic state of parents, also influence the size of existing asymmetries between parents. Here, I highlight how recent work on burying beetles (Nicrophorus sp.), a now well-established taxon to study biparental care, has contributed to research on sex differences in parenting. Although female burying beetles provide more care than males, the extent of this asymmetry is context-dependent as each sex constantly readjusts care depending on the surrounding environment and own state. Nevertheless, despite variation in the magnitude of the sex differences, there are still clear patterns of care specific to each species, highlighting the importance of the evolutionary history. Finally, the presence of sex differences presumably has consequences for the efficiency of parental care and can affect offspring performance. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the life-history and environmental conditions driving sex differences in parenting, we need more natural history research on the less commonly studied Nicrophorus species and more work examining behavioural responses to rapid environmental changes in all taxa. Addressing these gaps will contribute to our understanding of how sexual conflict over care is resolved and how biparental cooperation persists despite asymmetries between caring parents.

Intraspecific competition is a fundamental ecological process. Studies in ants have explored this mainly in the context of foraging. There is a notable gap in our understanding of competition dynamics during goal-oriented task of colony relocation even though this task impacts the survival and fitness of colonies. Here, we instigated a competition between equal (n = 17) and unequal (n = 14) sized Diacamma indicum colonies for a new nest and contrasted our findings with two sets of controls—colonies that relocated without facing any competition and colonies that did not relocate. In majority of the trials, one colony successfully occupied the new nest and colony size was a factor in determining this success. In addition, colonies with more explorers and lower latency to start recruitment had a significantly higher chance of occupying the new nest. In 23% of the trials, both colonies merged, following cross colony tandem recruitment and one of the gamergates was killed. The level of aggression displayed by the competing colonies was comparable, but the wining colonies had a lower percentage of colony involved in aggression. Higher levels of aggression were noted in the area close to at the old and new nest site. Further, there was exchange of pupae between competing colonies and larger colonies showed 2.86 times higher pupae theft. Losing colonies experienced significantly higher mortality as compared to controls. Winning colonies experienced higher mortality as compared to non relocating controls. This study showcases how intraspecific competition during colony relocation shapes colony composition, fitness and population dynamics in an ant community.

Despite the extraordinary diversity of organisms associated with ants, few species or genera have been inventoried for the myrmecophilous communities they host. Here, we review the known information on Lepidoptera associated with the ant genus Ectatomma, based on: (a) extensive colony sampling and observations on six focal species (E. tuberculatum, E. brunneum, and four cryptic species of the E. ruidum species complex) over a period of 43 years in Mexico, French Guiana, and Colombia, (b) a follow-up of the available literature, and (c) an analysis of Ectatomma images from various photographic databases available online and direct observations in Brazil and Suriname. No lepidopteran species were found inside the nests, but a wide variety of facultative mutualisms were observed outside on plants bearing extrafloral nectaries and/or honeydew-producing hemipterans; however, around 15% involved a form of commensalism, with no direct physical butterfly–ant interaction. Various new associations, previously unnoticed, are reported, and we illustrate a new symbiotic association between Rekoa palegon and E. ruidum sp. 2 in Mexico. At least 29 lepidopteran species from 19 genera, belonging to four tribes in three subfamilies and three families, participate in 41 associations involving only 5 of the 18 known Ectatomma species, all 5 characterized by visiting liquid food sources on foliage. Specialized interactions with Ectatomma ants were only found in three Riodinidae species, while in Lycaenidae interactions were all facultative. A greater sampling effort is needed, including nocturnal sampling and studies on little-studied species of this genus, to obtain a comprehensive picture of the extent of Ectatomma–Lepidoptera interactions.

In this review, we explore the social behavior of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, integrating mechanistic, ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Despite its status as a major laboratory model organism, D. melanogaster’s social life remains generally underappreciated by biologists. Adult flies attract others to food sources through pheromone deposition, leading to group formation. Within these groups, males engage in competitive reproductive behaviors while females adopt complex mating patterns and lay eggs communally. Both sexes adapt their reproductive behaviors to early as well as current social experience. Communal egg-laying by females promotes larval group formation, with larvae cooperating to dig tunnels for protection and breathing while feeding. Aggregation is also visible at the pupal stage, suggesting a social dimension to the entire life cycle of this species. We examine the competitive and cooperative behaviors of D. melanogaster, considering the ecological context (resource distribution, predation, parasitism pressures, and reproductive strategies) that influences these social interactions. We also discuss how individual behavior and physiology varies with group size and diversity, potentially as an adaptation to the costs and benefits of being in a group. This review underscores the potential of fruit flies in advancing research on social interactions and dynamics, demonstrating their usefulness for the fields of sociality, evolution and social neurosciences.

Many social insects use pheromone trails to recruit workers to resources. Pheromone trails have some limitations, however. Two major limitations are that they evaporate over time, meaning that more distant locations may be more difficult to recruit precisely to, and that they cannot be removed if laid erroneously, or if they become outdated. Here, we ask whether Lasius niger ants can adaptively modulate pheromone deposition to overcome these limitations. Specifically, we first ask whether ants which have followed a pheromone trail to a wrong (unrewarded) location upregulate pheromone deposition to the correct food location to compete with the erroneous trail. They do not. Then, we examine how food distance and proximity to food influence pheromone deposition. We find that ants deposit up to 22 times more pheromone within 10 cm of a food source compared to when they are about to reach the nest. Moreover, they deposit up to four times more pheromone next to a food source placed 100 cm away from the nest as compared to one placed 20 cm away from the nest. Lasius niger ants thus do not display a mechanism for overcoming outdated or erroneously-laid trails by strengthening correct alternatives in our experiment, but do strongly upregulate recruitment to more distant food sources, which are more difficult to locate and recruit to.

The ability to keep stable, healthy colonies in laboratory settings is fundamental for conducting research on ants and particularly important for developing management tools for pest species. An important component for successful ant rearing is a suitable diet and a number of diets for feeding ants have been developed. Calcium caseinate as a protein supplement has been a widely used ingredient in ant diets, but it has become difficult to obtain. Therefore, there is a need to find an alternative protein supplement for rearing ants in captivity. Using the ant Nylanderia fulva as a model, the suitability of four alternative diets was tested against a calcium caseinate containing diet: (1) whey protein isolate fortified with calcium, (2) whey protein isolate, (3) sodium caseinate, and (4) cricket powder. We tested the performance of colony fragments fed on diets by comparing worker and queen mortality, as well as brood production for 6 weeks. Diet containing cricket powder performed better than all other diets, reflected by lower worker mortality and the addition of new workers and brood to the colony fragment, resulting in colony growth. Considering recent developments in the production of cricket powder making it a low cost and readily accessible ingredient, it should prove an effective protein supplement for rearing ants in captivity for other species.

Human activity is one of the major causes of biodiversity loss in both plants and animals, as it can disrupt biological interactions and jeopardise the balance of ecosystems. Despite the implementation of conservation and environmental care policies, their management requires long-term monitoring and incurs high costs. In search of efficient solutions, bioindicator species have been implemented as cost-effective and time-efficient alternatives. Given their diverse roles within terrestrial ecosystems, ants serve as an ideal model group for assessing environmental health and changes in biodiversity. In this study, we focused on identifying disturbance-indicator ant species in various regions of Mexico and analysed their potential geographic distribution patterns. Information was gathered from various sources, including databases, entomological collections, and scientific articles. The human footprint was utilised to categorise ant species based on their impact in Mexico. Using the indicator species value (IndVal) method, 21 ant species indicatives of disturbance were determined across eight Mexican provinces. Eleven of these species exhibited widespread distributions, primarily in vegetation-deprived areas and human settlements. The presence of invasive exotic species, such as Paratrechina longicornis and Wasmannia auropunctata, underscores the need to assess their risks, identify invasion patterns, and develop control and conservation strategies. We provide a list of ecologically relevant ant species in Mexico, establishing a baseline for proposing conservation and effective biodiversity management strategies.

Social aphids have received increasing attention from sociobiologists as they offer novel systems for the study of the origins and maintenance of social behavior. All aphids undergo clonal reproduction in their life cycles, which has consequences for kin structure and social dynamics in aphid colonies. Although most of the known social aphids are defined by the presence of defender morphs, others, such as Tamalia gall aphids, exhibit communal behavior by foundresses when occupying galls, which raises questions about the circumstances favoring such behavior. Co-occupation of galls has opened the door towards exploitation by inquiline Tamalia aphids acting as obligate parasites of gall-inducers. Inquilines compete successfully with their host aphids in reproduction output and, possibly, developmental rates, but the mechanisms behind these advantages are not yet understood.

Fallen twigs on forest floors are an important nesting resource for ants. Despite their abundance in the leaf litter, these twigs are not always colonized, since various attributes affect their occupancy. However, the morphological parameters of ants are potentially linked to the entrance hole size in arboreal species, which will vary among castes. We therefore tested for the relation between the ant morphological traits of different castes and the size of entrance holes in twigs, using communities collected in the leaf litter in areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We measured a total of 4,159 ant individuals across 60 species and their female castes, and dissected 4,805 twigs, of which 1,064 had entrance holes, 519 hosted ants. The entrance hole size of twigs was also measured. We observed average ant morphological traits (per colony or species level) were positively related to the average size of the entrance holes in the twigs. At the colony level, all five morphological variables measured (head width, head length, scape length, Weber's length, and hind femur length) were related to the entrance hole size in workers and majors, and the same was true for queens except for scape length. At the species level, this pattern was maintained for workers and queens, but in majors hole sizes were only related to their head width. We conclude that the size of the entrance hole is a relevant variable for the occupancy of twigs in the leaf litter by morphologically variable species of twig-nesting ants.