Mate Recognition and Sex Differences in Cuticular Hydrocarbons of the Diurnal Firefly Ellychnia corrusca (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Lei Ming ◽  
Sara M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Mate Recognition

scholarly journals Ant cuticular hydrocarbons are heritable and associated with variation in colony productivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1928) ◽  
pp. 20201029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Walsh ◽  
Luigi Pontieri ◽  
Patrizia d'Ettorre ◽  
Timothy A. Linksvayer
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Evolutionary Features ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Individual Hydrocarbons ◽  
Colony Productivity

In social insects, cuticular hydrocarbons function in nest-mate recognition and also provide a waxy barrier against desiccation, but basic evolutionary features, including the heritability of hydrocarbon profiles and how they are shaped by natural selection are largely unknown. We used a new pharaoh ant ( Monomorium pharaonis ) laboratory mapping population to estimate the heritability of individual cuticular hydrocarbons, genetic correlations between hydrocarbons, and fitness consequences of phenotypic variation in the hydrocarbons. Individual hydrocarbons had low to moderate estimated heritability, indicating that some compounds provide more information about genetic relatedness and can also better respond to natural selection. Strong genetic correlations between compounds are likely to constrain independent evolutionary trajectories, which is expected, given that many hydrocarbons share biosynthetic pathways. Variation in cuticular hydrocarbons was associated with variation in colony productivity, with some hydrocarbons experiencing strong directional selection. Altogether, this study builds on our knowledge of the genetic architecture of the social insect hydrocarbon profile and indicates that hydrocarbon variation is shaped by natural selection.

Male mate recognition via cuticular hydrocarbons facilitates sexual isolation between sympatric leaf beetle sister species

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 15-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Huai-Jun Xue ◽  
Ke-Qing Song ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Wen-Zhu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Leaf Beetle ◽  
Sister Species ◽  
Male Mate

scholarly journals The influence of slavemaking lifestyle, caste and sex on chemical profiles in Temnothorax ants: insights into the evolution of cuticular hydrocarbons

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1850) ◽  
pp. 20162249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Kleeberg ◽  
Florian Menzel ◽  
Susanne Foitzik
Keyword(s):  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Host Recognition ◽  
Virgin Queen ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Specific Chemical ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
Parasitic Lifestyle ◽  
Chemical Traits

Chemical communication is central for the formation and maintenance of insect societies. Generally, social insects only allow nest-mates into their colony, which are recognized by their cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). Social parasites, which exploit insect societies, are selected to circumvent host recognition. Here, we studied whether chemical strategies to reduce recognition evolved convergently in slavemaking ants, and whether they extend to workers, queens and males alike. We studied CHCs of three social parasites and their related hosts to investigate whether the parasitic lifestyle selects for specific chemical traits that reduce host recognition. Slavemaker profiles were characterized by shorter-chained hydrocarbons and a shift from methyl-branched alkanes to n -alkanes, presumably to reduce recognition cue quantity. These shifts were consistent across independent origins of slavery and were found in isolated ants and those emerging in their mother colony. Lifestyle influenced profiles of workers most profoundly, with little effect on virgin queen profiles. We detected an across-species caste signal, with workers, for which nest-mate recognition is particularly important, carrying more and longer-chained hydrocarbons and males exhibiting a larger fraction of n -alkanes. This comprehensive study of CHCs across castes and species reveals how lifestyle-specific selection can result in convergent evolution of chemical phenotypes.

Does the Stereochemistry of Methylated Cuticular Hydrocarbons Contribute to Mate Recognition in the Egg Parasitoid Wasp Ooencyrtus kuvanae?

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 1306-1317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Ablard ◽  
Regine Gries ◽  
Grigori Khaskin ◽  
Paul W. Schaefer ◽  
Gerhard Gries
Keyword(s):  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Ooencyrtus Kuvanae

scholarly journals Cuticular hydrocarbon divergence in Drosophila melanogaster populations evolving under differential operational sex ratios

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochishnu Dutta ◽  
Tejinder Singh Chechi ◽  
Ankit Yadav ◽  
Nagaraj Guru Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Mate Preference ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profile ◽  
Buridan’S Ass

AbstractThe ability of interlocus sexual conflict to facilitate reproductive isolation is widely anticipated. However, very few experimental evolutionary studies have convincingly demonstrated the evolution of reproductive isolation due to sexual conflict. Recently a study on replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster under differential sexual conflict found that divergent mate preference evolved among replicate populations under high sexual conflict regime. The precopulatory isolating mechanism underlying such divergent mate preference could be sexual signals such as cuticular hydrocarbons since they evolve rapidly and are involved in D. melanogaster mate recognition. Using D. melanogaster replicates used in the previous study, we investigate whether cuticular hydrocarbon divergence bears signatures of sexually antagonistic coevolution that led to reproductive isolation among replicates of high sexual conflict regime. We found that D. melanogaster cuticular hydrocarbon profiles are sexually dimorphic. Although replicate populations under high sexual conflict displayed assortative mating, we found no significant differences in the cuticular hydrocarbon profile between the high and low sexual conflict regimes. Instead we find cuticular hydrocarbon divergence patterns to be suggestive of the Buridan’s Ass regime which is one of the six possible mechanisms to resolve sexual conflict. Sexual selection that co-vary between populations under high and low sexual conflict regimes may also have contributed to the evolution of cuticular hydrocarbons. This study indicates that population differentiation as a result of cuticular hydrocarbon divergence cannot be credited to sexual conflict despite high sexual conflict regime evolving divergent cuticular hydrocarbon profiles.

scholarly journals Environmental decomposition of cuticular hydrocarbons generates a volatile pheromone that guides insect social behavior

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Hatano ◽  
Ayako Wada-Katsumata ◽  
Coby Schal
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Periplaneta Americana ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Short Chain Fatty Acids ◽  
American Cockroach ◽  
Environmental Agents ◽  
Time Courses

AbstractOnce emitted, semiochemicals are exposed to reactive environmental factors that may alter them, thus disrupting chemical communication. Some species, however, might have adapted to detect environmentally mediated breakdown products of their natural chemicals as semiochemicals. We demonstrate that air, water vapor, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation break down unsaturated cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) of Periplaneta americana (American cockroach), resulting in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In behavioral assays, nymphs strongly avoided aggregating in shelters exposed to the breakdown VOCs from cuticular alkenes. The three treatments (air, water vapor, UV) produced the same VOCs, but at different time-courses and ratios. Fourteen VOCs from UV-exposed CHCs elicited electrophysiological responses in nymph antennae; 10 were identified as 1-pentanol, 1-octanol, 1-nonanol, tetradecanal, acetic acid, propanoic acid, butanoic acid, pentanoic acid and hexanoic acid. When short-chain fatty acids were tested as a mix and a blend of the alcohols and aldehyde was tested as a second mix, nymphs exhibited no preference for control or treated shelters. However, nymphs avoided shelters that were exposed to VOCs from the complete 10-compound mix. Conditioned shelters (occupied by cockroaches with feces and CHCs deposited on the shelters), which are normally highly attractive to nymphs, were also avoided after UV-exposure, confirming that breakdown products from deposited metabolites, including CHCs, mediate this behavior. Our results demonstrate that common environmental and anthropogenic agents degrade CHCs into volatile semiochemicals that may serve as necromones or epideictic pheromones, mediating group formation and dissolution.Significance StatementCuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) cover the outer surface of insects, where they prevent water loss and serve as sex pheromones and in nest-mate recognition in social insects. Although CHCs are not volatile, they can be broken into volatile fragments by reacting with environmental agents. We demonstrate that volatile breakdown products of CHCs affect the social behavior of the American cockroach. A synthetic mix of volatiles dispersed cockroaches away from shelters, signaling an unsuitable shelter. These results highlight that some insect species have evolved communication strategies that exploit environmental and anthropogenic agents to produce bioactive compounds that mediate ecological interactions.

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