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Originally published in Science Express on 9 June 2005
Science 8 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5732, pp. 311 - 314
DOI: 10.1126/science.1105244
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Reports

Ant Nestmate and Non-Nestmate Discrimination by a Chemosensory Sensillum

Mamiko Ozaki,1*{dagger} Ayako Wada-Katsumata,1* Kazuyo Fujikawa,1 Masayuki Iwasaki,2 Fumio Yokohari,2 Yuji Satoji,1 Tomoyosi Nisimura,1 Ryohei Yamaoka1

In animal societies, chemical communication plays an important role in conflict and cooperation. For ants, cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) blends produced by non-nestmates elicit overt aggression. We describe a sensory sensillum on the antennae of the carpenter ant Camponotus japonicus that functions in nestmate discrimination. This sensillum is multiporous and responds only to non-nestmate CHC blends. This suggests a role for a peripheral recognition mechanism in detecting colony-specific chemical signals.

1 Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan.
2 Department of Earth System Science, Faculty of Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mamiko{at}kit.ac.jp

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