While it was previously understood by scientists that ants secrete hydrocarbon compounds onto their exoskeletons to distinguish between class within their caste system, a new study published on Thursday in the journal Cell Reports has found that ants can also use these pheromones to detect and target their enemies for extermination.
The study, which was conducted by scientists from the University of California, Riverside, revealed just how much the sniffing abilities of ants have been underestimated, NBC News reports.
The study’s authors explained in summary that the Florida carpenter ants examined in their research demonstrate the ability to detect as well as differentiate between the “CHCs from both nestnames and non-nestmates.”
Behavioral assays demonstrate that these ants are excellent at discriminating CHCs detected by the antenna, including enantiomers of a candidate queen pheromone that regulates the reproductive division of labor.
In essence, ants have adapted to communicate via pheromones left in trails and secreted onto their bodies. And while they use these chemicals to communicate with one another, they also use them to find and kill their enemies.
Anandasankar Ray, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside, was quoted by Wired as having said that the study’s researchers found “that ants have quite an unusual capability to smell and sense these long-chain hydrocarbon compounds from the cuticle using their antennae” and olfactory system.
What we found is that ants have quite an unusual capability to smell and sense these long-chain hydrocarbon compounds from the cuticle using their antennae, using their olfactory system
According to the researchers, while Florida carpenter ants secrete the same hydrocarbons as one another, it’s the amounts that differentiate between caste. For instance, a worker’s levels of hydrocarbon secretion differ from those of a queen. And in the case of an intruder from another colony, the intruder’s chemical makeup may be similar, but not similar enough, as the ants are able to immediately detect the variation and distinguish between friend and foe. As Ray explained, “the ants of the neighboring colony are able to recognize that immediately and they become extremely aggressive, sometimes killing an intruder very, very quickly.”
If you’re an intruder from another colony (…) even though your hydrocarbon profile is nearly the same—some minor differences—the ants of the neighboring colony are able to recognize that immediately and they become extremely aggressive, sometimes killing an intruder very, very quickly.
In other news, an unrelated study conducted by a group of Israeli scientists has discovered just how ants work together carrying food and navigating back to their homes.
