| Title: | Spitting out information: Trigona bees deposit saliva to signal resource locations |
| Author(s): | Schorkopf DL; Jarau S; Francke W; Twele R; Zucchi R; Hrncir M; Schmidt VM; Ayasse M; Barth FG; |
| Address: | "Department for Neurobiology and Behavioural Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria. dirk-louis.schorkopf@univie.ac.at" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0962-8452 (Print) 1471-2954 (Electronic) 0962-8452 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Stingless bees of the species Trigona spinipes (Fabricius 1793) use their saliva to lay scent trails communicating the location of profitable food sources. Extracts of the cephalic labial glands of the salivary system (not the mandibular glands, however) contain a large amount (approx. 74%) of octyl octanoate. This ester is also found on the scent-marked substrates at the feeding site. We demonstrate octyl octanoate to be a single compound pheromone which induces full trail following behaviour. The identification of the trail pheromone in this widely distributed bee makes it an ideal organism for studying the mechanism of trail following in a day flying insect" |
| Keywords: | *Animal Communication Animals Bees/anatomy & histology/metabolism/*physiology Caprylates/metabolism Pheromones/chemistry/*physiology Saliva/chemistry/*physiology; |
| Notes: | "MedlineSchorkopf, Dirk Louis P Jarau, Stefan Francke, Wittko Twele, Robert Zucchi, Ronaldo Hrncir, Michael Schmidt, Veronika M Ayasse, Manfred Barth, Friedrich G eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2007/01/26 Proc Biol Sci. 2007 Mar 22; 274(1611):895-8. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3766" |
