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The interplay between genetic and environmental effects on colony insularity in the clonal invasive little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata

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Abstract

The little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, constitutes one clonal supercolony throughout Israel, providing an opportunity to examine the effects of genotype versus environment on nestmate recognition. Intraspecific encounters among field-collected or among laboratory-maintained colonies were nonaggressive, but encounters between freshly collected and laboratory-maintained colonies were highly aggressive. Analyses of cuticular hydrocarbons revealed that freshly field-collected colonies had distinguishable profiles. Moreover, freshly collected colonies had profiles disparate from those of the same colonies after 4 months in the laboratory. These results indicate a strong interplay between genetic-based and environmentally based effects on the recognition cues. We propose that in the field the ants’ diet breadth is broad and consequently the incorporation of diet-borne substances is insufficient to mask the genetically determined cues. In the laboratory, however, the restricted diet promoted the incorporation of alien hydrocarbons at high levels, thus altering the genetically based cues to the point of alienation. These results shed a new light on the mechanisms by which environmental cues may affect label and/or template formation in ants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish sincerely to thank Uri Roll and David Meir for their help in the field, Armin Ionesco-Hirsh for help with the ant identification and statistical analyses, Arieh Landsman for his cheerful support in overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles, Naomi Paz for editorial advice, Tamar Katzav-Gozansky, Tovit Simon, and Osnat Malka for their help with the chemical analyses, and Anne Loiseau for her help with the molecular analyses. This research was supported by the Rieger Foundation, the Porter School of Environmental Studies, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (grant 503-6), the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Jordan Valley Regional Council. The experiments presented here comply with the current laws of Israel.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Life Sciences Faculty, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Merav Vonshak, Tamar Dayan & Abraham Hefetz

  2. UMR Centre de Biologie et de Gestion des Populations (INRA/IRD/Cirad/Montpellier SupAgro), INRA, Campus international de Baillarguet, CS 30016, 34988, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France

    Julien Foucaud & Arnaud Estoup

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  1. Merav Vonshak
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  2. Tamar Dayan
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Correspondence to Merav Vonshak.

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Communicated by J. Heinze

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Vonshak, M., Dayan, T., Foucaud, J. et al. The interplay between genetic and environmental effects on colony insularity in the clonal invasive little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 1667–1677 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0775-9

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