Chemical camouflage of the slave-making ant Polyergus samurai queen in the process of the host colony usurpation (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

Founding queens of the obligatory social parasite ant Polyergus samurai usurp the host ant Formica japonica colony. The aggressive behaviors of F. japonica workers on the parasite queen disappear after the parasite queen kills the resident queen. To determine whether the parasite queen chemically mimics the host ants, we examined the aggressive behavior of F. japonica workers toward glass dummies applied with various extracts of the parasite queen and host workers. The crude extracts and hydrocarbon fraction reproduced the host workers’ behavior to the live ants. The extracts of the post-adoption parasite queen, as well as the nestmate extracts of F. japonica, did not elicit the aggressive behavior, but the extract of the pre-adoption parasite queen triggered attacks by the host workers. The nestmate recognition of host workers did not change, regardless of contact with the parasite. The gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses indicated that the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile of the parasite queen drastically changed during the process of usurpation. Discriminant analysis showed the successfully usurped P. samurai queen had colony-specific CHC profiles. CHC profiles of the P. samurai queen who killed the host queen were more similar to those of the host queen than the workers, while the P. samurai queen who usurped the queenless colony had a profile similar to those of host workers. These results suggest that the P. samurai queen usually acquires the CHCs from the host queen during the fight, but from host wokers in queenless host colonies.