Differential necrophoric behaviour of the ant Solenopsis invicta towards fungal-infected corpses of workers and pupae. Issue 5 (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Qiu, H.-L.; Lu, L.-H.; Shi, Q.-X.; Tu, C.-C.; Lin, T.; He, Y.-R.
• Is Part Of: Bulletin of entomological research. Volume 105:Issue 5(2015)
• Page Start: 607
• Page End: 614
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: Entomology -- Periodicals; 595.7
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007485315000528
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-4853

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Necrophoric behaviour is critical sanitation behaviour in social insects. However, little is known about the necrophoric responses of workers towards different developmental stages in a colony as well as its underlying mechanism. Here, we show that <italic>Solenopsis invicta</italic> workers display distinct necrophoric responses to corpses of workers and pupae. Corpses of workers killed by freezing (dead for &lt;1 h) were carried to a refuse pile, but pupal corpses would take at least 1 day to elicit workers' necrophoric response. <italic>Metarhizium anisopliae</italic>-infected pupal corpses accelerated the necrophoric behaviour of resident workers, with 47.5% of unaffected corpses and 73.8% infected corpses discarded by 1 day post-treatment). We found that fungus-infected pupal corpses had a higher concentration of fatty acids (palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid) on their surface. We experimentally confirmed that linoleic and oleic acids would elicit a necrophoric response in workers. The appearance of linoleic and oleic acids appeared to be chemical signals involved in recognition of pupal corpses, and <italic>M. anisopliae</italic> infection could promote the accumulation of fatty acids on surface of pupal corpses resulting in accelerated necrophoric responses of workers.</p> </abstract>