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Collection and Long-Term Maintenance of Leaf-Cutting Ants Atta in Laboratory Conditions
Published on: August 30, 2022
Alkaloid secretion inhibited by antibiotics in Aphaenogaster ants
Alain Lenoir1, Séverine Devers1
1IRBI, Institut de recherche sur la biologie de l'insecte, Université de Tours, Faculté des sciences, parc de Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France.
Abstract:
Although alkaloids are frequent in the poison glands of ants of the genus Aphaenogaster, this is not the case for A. iberica. Hypothesizing that in the genus Aphaenogaster, alkaloids are produced by symbiotic bacteria, except for A. iberica, we treated an experimental lot of both A. iberica and a 'classical' Aphaenogaster species, A. senilis, with an antibiotic. Compared to workers from a control lot, this treatment reduced considerably alkaloid production in A. senilis, whereas A. iberica did not react to the treatment. Furthermore, the treatment induced an increase in cuticular hydrocarbon quantities in A. senilis, but not in A. iberica. An analysis of the ant microbiota will be the next step to confirm our hypothesis.
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