We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Imported Fire Ants Discard Cricket Eggs.
- Authors
Chen, Jian; Ni, Xinzhi; Grodowitz, Michael J.
- Abstract
Simple Summary: During routine feeding of crickets to laboratory imported fire ant colonies, it was observed that while most of the cricket tissues are used by the fire ants, only the hard outside shell or cuticle and the eggs are not utilized. Interestingly, the eggs are removed from the nest and deposited on refuse piles created by the fire ants. Why waste a highly nutritious food source, such as cricket eggs? It was found through several experimental trials and chemical analyses that the surface of the cricket egg has a chemical profile consisting mainly of fatty acids, like that found on dead fire ants. It thus elicits what is known as necrophoric behavior, where chemical cues on the surface of the ants elicit a behavior in which the dead ants are removed from the colony and deposited in refuse piles. Possible reasons for such similar surface compositions between fire ants and cricket eggs are discussed. The house cricket, Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus), is often used as a food source for the maintenance of imported fire ants under laboratory rearing. It was found that both red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, and black imported fire ants, S. richteri Forel, consumed most of the soft tissues of female crickets, but avoided their eggs by disposing of them on refuse piles. Bioassays using freshly collected cricket eggs showed that ants first retrieved eggs into their nests and then discarded them onto the refuse piles. The major chemicals on the surface of cricket eggs were found to be fatty acids, including lauric, myristic, palmitoleic, palmitic, linoleic, oleic, and stearic acid. Fatty acids are well-known death cues of insects and elicitors of widespread necrophoric behavior in ants. It was shown that both the cricket egg extract and the reconstructed fatty acid mixture elicited the necrophoric behavior of S. invicta; however, they never elicited retrieving behavior. Unknown chemicals on cricket eggs, other than fatty acids, might be responsible for the retrieving behavior. Interestingly, cricket eggs had a very similar fatty acid profile to that of dead ants collected from refuse piles. Possible causes for such a strong match in fatty acid profiles between dead ants and cricket eggs are discussed.
- Subjects
FIRE ants; ANT colonies; ANT behavior; STEARIC acid; FATTY acids; SOLENOPSIS invicta
- Publication
Insects (2075-4450), 2024, Vol 15, Issue 12, p954
- ISSN
2075-4450
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.3390/insects15120954