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Science 24 October 1980:
Vol. 210. no. 4468, pp. 431 - 433
DOI: 10.1126/science.210.4468.431
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Articles

Chemical Mimicry as an Integrating Mechanism: Cuticular Hydrocarbons of a Termitophile and Its Host

RALPH W. HOWARD 1, C. A. MCDANIEL 2, and GARY J. BLOMQUIST 3

1 Southern Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gulfport, Mississippi 39503
2 National Monitoring and Residue Analysis Laboratory, U.S Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Gulfport 39503
3 Department of Biochemistry, University of Nevada-Reno, Reno 89557

The staphylinid beetle Trichopsenius frosti Seevers has the same cuticular hydrocarbons as those of its host termite Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) and it biosynthesizes them. These cuticular hydrocarbons probably serve as the primary mechanism by which Trichopsenius frosti integrates itself into the termite colony.

Submitted on February 2, 1980
Revised on May 5, 1980


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Cuticular hydrocarbons as queen adoption cues in the invasive Argentine ant.
G. M. Vasquez, C. Schal, and J. Silverman (2008)
J. Exp. Biol. 211, 1249-1256
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Chemical Mimicry in the Myrmecophilous Beetle Myrmecaphodius excavaticollis.
R. K. V. MEER and D. P. WOJCIK (1982)
Science 218, 806-808
   Abstract »    PDF »


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