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<p>One of the main challenges of social parasitism is deceiving the host’s recognition system and thereby exploiting redirected altruistic behavior. Various chemical strategies have evolved to achieve this goal. The most widespread, used also by the obligate slave-making ants, is camouflage or mimicry of the colony odour encoded in cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) composition. However, recent studies have shown that facultative slave-makers employ a different strategy: they manipulate the slaves’ recognition labels to make them resemble the parasite’s CHC profile. We examined the limitations of this strategy by focusing on incipient <i>F. sanguinea</i> colonies, where slaves are the majority. Our study revealed that callow <i>F. sanguinea</i> ants initially suppress their species-specific odour profile, which develops gradually over time, accompanied by an increase of the CHC amount per surface area in slave-maker workers. This allows the slaves to familiarise themselves with the parasite’s CHCs. We found that callow ants produce lower amounts of CHCs, and the relative abundance of certain compounds differs from that in older ants. Additionally, preimaginal stages of <i>F. sanguinea</i> ants acquire CHCs from the slaves, which are later incorporated into the recognition labels of the imagines. These findings support the proposition that the parasite’s manipulation strategy is limited by the slaves’ learning capacity, which is necessary to maintain colony cohesion. They also shed light on the selective pressures that might have led to the evolution of chemical mimicry in mature obligate slave-maker colonies.</p>

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Coming out from the shadows: facultative slave-making ants reveal their chemical identity during colony development

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月19日

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  • Tomasz Włodarczyk,
  • Thomas Schmitt

摘要

One of the main challenges of social parasitism is deceiving the host’s recognition system and thereby exploiting redirected altruistic behavior. Various chemical strategies have evolved to achieve this goal. The most widespread, used also by the obligate slave-making ants, is camouflage or mimicry of the colony odour encoded in cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) composition. However, recent studies have shown that facultative slave-makers employ a different strategy: they manipulate the slaves’ recognition labels to make them resemble the parasite’s CHC profile. We examined the limitations of this strategy by focusing on incipient F. sanguinea colonies, where slaves are the majority. Our study revealed that callow F. sanguinea ants initially suppress their species-specific odour profile, which develops gradually over time, accompanied by an increase of the CHC amount per surface area in slave-maker workers. This allows the slaves to familiarise themselves with the parasite’s CHCs. We found that callow ants produce lower amounts of CHCs, and the relative abundance of certain compounds differs from that in older ants. Additionally, preimaginal stages of F. sanguinea ants acquire CHCs from the slaves, which are later incorporated into the recognition labels of the imagines. These findings support the proposition that the parasite’s manipulation strategy is limited by the slaves’ learning capacity, which is necessary to maintain colony cohesion. They also shed light on the selective pressures that might have led to the evolution of chemical mimicry in mature obligate slave-maker colonies.