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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Behavior And Chemical Signals As Markers Of Colony Identification In Argentine Ants (Linepithema Humile), Stephanie A. Rohrbach
Behavior And Chemical Signals As Markers Of Colony Identification In Argentine Ants (Linepithema Humile), Stephanie A. Rohrbach
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, are a highly successful invasive species around the globe and are especially prominent in states such as California and the southeastern United States. L.humile have a unique form of unicoloniality, called “supercolonies”. L. humile can detect colonymates through scent markers in their outer cuticle. With these chemical markers, ants will exhibit high aggression if they smell different from one another. In our study, we performed aggression assays among ten different nest sites and analyzed their CHCs through gas chromatography mass spectrometry, or GC-MS, analysis. For our behavior results, while within-nest interactions displayed low aggression as …
Characterization Of Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profiles In Southeastern Argentine Ant (Linepithema Humile) Colonies, Katherine R. Barrs
Characterization Of Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profiles In Southeastern Argentine Ant (Linepithema Humile) Colonies, Katherine R. Barrs
Honors College Theses
Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, are a globally invasive species that displaces native species and facilitates agricultural pests. Colonies occupy distinct territories with multiple nests and defend them against other colonies. Ants have a waxy coating of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) and can detect (i.e. smell) differences in these CHCs to identify their own vs foreign colonies. In the US, Argentine ants have been primarily studied in California where they only form four massive colonies showing mutual aggression, some spanning more than 500 miles. In the Southeast, colony recognition remains largely unexplored; however, we have identified several smaller colonies based on …