Octopamine reverses the isolation-induced increase in trophallaxis in the carpenter ant Camponotus fellah

Social deprivation is an unusual situation for ants that normally maintain continuous contact with their nestmates. When a worker was experimentally isolated for 5 days and then reunited with a nestmate, she engaged in prolonged trophallaxis. It is suggested that trophallaxis allows her to restore a social bond with her nestmates and to re-integrate into the colony, particularly via the exchange of colony-specific hydrocarbons. Octopamine reduced trophallaxis in these workers as well as hydrocarbon transfer between nestmates, but not hydrocarbon biosynthesis. Administration of serotonin to such 5-day-isolated ants had no effect on the percentage of trophallaxis. Administration of phentolamine alone, an octopamine antagonist, had no effect, but when co-administrated with octopamine it reduced the effect of octopamine alone and restored trophallaxis to control levels. Moreover, the observed effect of octopamine was not due to a non-specific effect on locomotor activity. Therefore, we hypothesise that octopamine mediates behaviour patterns linked to social bonding, such as trophallaxis. On the basis of an analogy with the role of norepinephrine in vertebrates, we suggest that the levels of octopamine in the brain of socially deprived ants may decrease, together with a concomitant increase in their urge to perform trophallaxis and to experience social contacts. Octopamine administration may reduce this social deprivation effect, and octopamine could therefore be regarded as being partly responsible for the social cohesion between nestmates in ant colonies.